Blog Tour Bitty Blocks: Annes Morning Star

As part of Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Blog Tour for Volume 12, were giving away new #qmbittyblocks each day.

Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Volume 12, on newsstands Tuesday, 11/17

Some of the Bitty Blocks will be designed by people who have blocks in this great new issue, like Anne Wiens, who designed todays Morning Star.

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Morning Star by Anne Wiens for Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Blog Tour, #qmbittyblocks

This little darling finishes at just 3. Its effect is smashing!

Here are instructions for one Morning Star Bitty Block. Anne cut her half- and quarter-square triangles oversized and then trimmed then down for perfect accuracy on these small patches. If you prefer to make them to the exact size, use the dimensions in parentheses. Our instructions guide you to use the oversized patches and then trim them down.

Materials and Cutting

(Printer-friendly instructions here)

For one 3 finished block:

One 1-1/2 square for center; shown as owl print
Two 2 squares background (1-7/8); shown white
Two 2-1/2 squares for star points (2-1/4); shown orange
Two 2 squares and one 2-1/2 square for star background (1-7/8 & 2-1/4); shown teal
One 2-1/2 square for diamond around center (2-1/4); shown green

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Patches needed for Morning Star quilt block

Use the 2 squares of white and teal to make 4 half-square triangles as follows.

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Mark the diagonal on the wrong side of one square.

Mark the diagonal on the wrong side of one square. Layer the squares with right sides together.

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Sew 1/4 out on both sides of the marked diagonal line.

Sew 1/4 out on both sides of the marked diagonal line as indicted by the blue lines. Cut between the lines of stitching to yield 2 triangle-squares. Repeat for a total of 4 triangle-squares. Trim the units to 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 as needed.

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Anne uses the Tucker Trimmer to trim her oversized patchwork down to size. The left photo above shows the first cuts you would make along the tip and right side of the ruler. The right photo shows the second cuts you would make.

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Layer the green, teal and orange patches together and cut diagonally in both directions as shown.

Layer the 2-1/2 green, teal and orange patches together and cut diagonally in both directions as shown.

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Arrange the patches as shown.

Arrange the patches as shown above. Sew the patches together to create a quarter-square triangle. Make 4 matching quarter-square triangles. Trim each one to 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 as needed.

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Anne uses the Tucker Trimmer for this task as well. The left photo above shows where youd make the first trim. The right photo shows the second trim.

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Sew the patches into rows as shown.

Sew the patches into three rows as shown. Sew the rows together to complete the block.

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Morning Star by Anne Wiens for Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Blog Tour, #qmbittyblocks

These 3 darlings are so sweet! I know youll want to make a whole pile of them!

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Some of Annes finished Morning Star blocks

Be sure to get your copy of Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Volume 12 when it appears on newsstands and our website tomorrow, 11/17/15.

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Help us spread the word! Share your Bitty Blocks online using #qmbittyblocks.

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