Savvy Star Bee Block Tutorial
So the UK Borders Agency Quilting Bee now has all the members it needs, and now I am working on my centre block. Well, sort of. I haven't actually sewn it yet but we have a couple of weeks so I'll probably do it on Sunday after the craft fair.
This is what I am planning on making- I'm not sure of its traditional name- and there's bound to be one- I'm just calling it the Savvy Star for now. I'm going to go for bold colours but they may not exactly be these shades when I'm done. I'm probably going to use some baby blue Sherbet Pips dogs in the centre.If you fancy stitching one up at the same time as me, you can find the templates here and here's the instructions below... You could do it using freezer paper piecing if you prefer.***1) Trace the outer lines of the pattern pieces onto card or template plastic. For a one off block you can probably get away with printing, cutting out the paper pieces and pinning to your fabric and cutting out that way. Or if you're feeling clever you could transfer the lines straight onto your fabric.2) Cut out all the pieces from fabric using your templates- you will need 4x A, 4x B, 4x C, 4x D, 1x E, 4x F (or invert your C template and cut four) and 4x G. That's a total of 25 pieces.3) Make the centre block first. Align the corner pieces (marked D) and sew into place onto E. Always use a 1/4" seam allowance otherwise the block won't work!4) Next, make up triangle blocks in the same way, making four pieces with B and C sewn together and four of F and G.5) Sew the BC and FG blocks together to make four rectangles.6) Next, arrange in rows, so you will need to make the top row by sewing block A to a BCFG (making sure it's the right way round- refer to the diagram if you're not sure) and then to another A.7) Continue the method with the middle row and then the bottom row, then stitch the rows together to complete.Other option... You could paper piece this together by hand by making paper templates of the inner shapes and folding and stitching fabric around them before piecing together (here's my way of doing English Paper Piecing)EDIT: I have now completed the block!