Made in Cherry Quilt Along - sewing the central star

 

Yay, today we do some sewing!!  Let's start with that block of 100 squares that make up the center of the star.

Yesterday when I laid my quilt out I broke the center down into 4 blocks of 25 squares each.  I find it so much easier working in smaller sections like this, and not just because my sewing table is an Ikea tv tray!  It's just easier to keep track of 25 squares of fabric rather than 100!

Here's my first section.  I started sewing at the top of the pile and sewed the cream and red floral to the raindrop fabric (1).  Then I sewed the fabric with the pink cricket cage to the white and black print (2), sewing them all in a chain until I ended at (5).  Then I started back at the top again, sewing the fabric with the old fashioned lock onto the cream and red floral (1).  Chaining my pieces together like this means that I end up with a piece that looks like this:

Half the seams are sewn and everything is held together.  I don't have to worry about mixing up my rows!  Now I can press my seams.

I like to press my seams in opposite directions.  This way the seam allowances butt up together and make for really tight matches.

Here you can see how in alternating columns I've pressed the seams in opposite directions.  And, yeah, I made a few squares out of smaller pieces - I ran out of light print scraps large enough to cut 4½" squares.

Now you just need to sew all the columns together and press (these seams can all be pressed in the same direction).  Yay, one quadrant down, 3 to go!

Lather Sew, rinse press, repeat!

Our 4 quadrants are sewn, now we just need to join them together.

That was fast!  Ok, one more seam!

Woot!!!  And now I need a cup of tea...

That's better.  Ok, let's tackle those star points.

I found that for the star points it was easiest to lay the pieces out on the floor or table next to me.  Then I stitched them up just like the center quadrants, chain piecing everything together.  Again, I pressed my seams so they went in opposite directions to make butting them easier.

Then I stitched everything together and popped the label back on the point.  7 more to go!  Don't sew your star points to the center, just make sure you're still happy with their positioning and put them away until next week.

And that's it for this week!  Next week we'll be cutting our background fabric and piecing everything together.

happy stitching,
c

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