CQF Month 8 - February 2013 - Starry Night

General Description of Block: This is a nine patch block, constructed with nine patch blocks in the corners. The edge blocks are constructed of triangles - suggesting a friendship star, plus something more...a conundrum. 

I like the idea of making this quilt as a study in shades of the same color.  I chose black and grey....thus the name Starry Night.

There isn't anything in this block that we haven't already done in this series. It should be easy. 

FQG: Your kit contains fabric for the little black squares in the corners. 

"A New York State of Mind" designed by Maria Kalinowski for Benartex, (# City Lights CM5334.) will create circles that come and go as the whites, greys, and blacks in the pattern are rearranged in our blocks.  The resulting quilt will be a study in the night life - blacks, greys, and whites.

You will need white, black, and two greys to complete this block.

Cutting Directions: (there are 49 pieces, but some will be strip pieced to make it easier.)

• White
• 4, 2" x 8" rectangles (for corner blocks)
• 1, 6 1/4" x 6 1/4" square (for edge blocks)
• sub-cut twice on the diagonal to create 4 small triangles
• Black
• 1, 5" x 5" square (for center block)
• Medium Grey
• 2, 6 1/4" x 6 1/4" squares (for edge blocks)
• sub-cut once on the diagonal to create 4 large triangles
• Light Grey
• 2, 2" x 8" rectangles (for corner blocks)
• 1, 6 1/4" x 6 1/4" square (for edge blocks)
• sub-cut twice on the diagonal to create 4 small triangles
• Kit fabric
• 3, 2" x 8" rectangles

Piecing Directions:

Corners:

• Sew strip sets:
• Gather all 2" x 8" rectangles. (You should have 9)
• Sew 3 sets of 3 as follows
• grey, white, black
• white, black, white
• black, white, grey
• Iron seam allowances toward the black.  Where black is on the outside of the set, iron seam allowances so that they fall away from the center
• Cut each strip set into 4, 2" x width of set segments
• Sew segments together to match picture above.  Make 4.
• Trim blocks to 5" x 5" squares

Edges:

• Gather all triangles.  (You should have 12)
• Sew one white small triangle to one small light grey triangle.
• Place the white on top as you feed it through your machine right angle first and it will come out correctly.
• The white triangle  should fall to the left when, with the hypotenuse parallel and closest to you, the patch is pressed open.  Thinking of it as if it were a little pyramid, the left side is white and the right side is light grey.
• Iron seam allowances open.
• Align pieced large triange with medium grey large triangle at the right angle.  The medium grey patch will be a bit big.  That is okay.
• Sew hypotenuse of pieced triangle to hypotenuse of medium grey triangle, 1/4" from edge of pieced triangle.
• Iron seam allowances towards the medium grey.
• Trim to 5" X 5" square.
• Repeat 3 times to make 4

Assemble Block:

• Gather 8, 5" pieced blocks and 1, 5" black square
• Arrange patches in front of you so that it resembles the picture above.
• Sew patches into three rows.
• Iron seam allowances towards the edge blocks
• Sew rows together to make block.
• Iron seam allowances towards the center row.

Bring your completed block(s) to the February 2013 meeting of the Frisco Quilt Guild to be eligible to enter a drawing to receive the whole bundle.   (There are 29 kits available this round...30 finished blocks to be won.)

The finished quilt will look something like this....