12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop and Quiltalong, Day 5!

 

Hi, all!

Are you having fun yet?  I have been so inspired by the wonderful projects and ideas that have been shared so far, and there's still a lot to come in this year's 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop!  Today we"ll be visiting with Joanne of Everyone Deserves a Quilt (ain't that the truth!) and I just know she has something special to share.  We'll also be assembling the first block for the quilt-along quilt - a milestone, for sure!

And here's the schedule for the rest of the hop...

Wednesday, July 14th

Joy of Days Filled With Joy

Thursday, July 15th

Moira of The Quilted Snail

Friday, July 16th

Jamie of L'Fair Quilts

Saturday, July 17th

Bonnie of In Stitches With Bonnie

Sunday, July 18th

Joanne of Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Monday, July 19th

Kate of Katie Mae Quilts

Shasta of High Road Quilter

Tuesday, July 20th

Vicki of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Wednesday, July 21st

Leanne of The Devoted Quilter

Thursday, July 22nd

Kathy of Kathy's Kwilts and More

Sandra of MMM Quilts

Friday, July 23rd

Carole of From My Carolina Home

Saturday, July 24th

Joanne of Everyone Deserves a Quilt (Part 2)

Sunday, July 25th

Karrin of Karrin's Crazy World

*&*&*&*&*&*&*

Are you ready to finish this block?  Let's go!  Gather up all your component pieces and take them to the sewing table.  By this point, everything except your long side pieces should be trimmed and ready for assembly.

Lay your center block down with a white triangle in the upper left corner.  Place a flying geese unit above and below the block, with the triangle center point facing out.  Your flying geese units may be slightly larger than your center block - no worries!  Just center the two pieces, pin and sew.  If the difference is small (1/16" to a scant 1/8") it will be hidden in the side seams.  Press the seams open.

Now lay that unit back on the table and place your side units on either side as shown, with the red in the upper left and lower right.  This is the tricky part - lining up those diagonal seams on the side pieces with the center unit - and where having those seams pressed open can really come in handy.   

Measure down 1/4" from the edge of the side piece across the diagonal seam and put a pin through the spot.  Push that pin through the spot where the diagonal seams meet on the center piece.  You can see what I mean in the picture above.  

Pin the seam above and below that point.  As you were warned, the sid piece will be longer than the center unit.  No worries, you will trim it later!  Sew the seam, say a quick prayer, and open it up.  Did your diagonals match?  If so, awesome!  If not, grab your trusty little friend Jack (the seam ripper) and fix it, noting any adjustments you had to make so you can fix it for the next seam.  I won't lie, I had to do this a couple of times but after a while I got good at matching them up while pinning.  It's worth taking the time to get it right!  

And once again, you may find it easier to keep from clipping your points if you sew from this side of the block.  I certainly did!  

Once you've sewn both side units on the block, press the seams open and trim the block to approximately 12.5" square.  Yours may be a little smaller than this - mine was - but the important thing is that those points top and bottom are 1/4" from the cut edge, and the block is square.  

Guess what?  You've now made (almost) half the blocks for your quilt!  Tomorrow we'll start on Block 2, a fun star block.  See you then!

Hugs!

Sarah