Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. And I’ve got a fun tutorial for you today. I just love this little block. It is just the sweetest, cutest little block you’ve ever seen. Let’s take a look at this quilt behind me. Isn’t this fun? I love this fabric. It is bright. It’s happy. It’s cheerful. And I love the way these stars just twinkle. That’s just why we’re calling it Twinkling Stars. So to make this quilt what you’re going to need is four packs of five inch squares. And we have used Daisy Days by Kira Job for Riley Blake. You’re also going to need one pack or 42 five inch squares of a background. And we’ve used a white. Then you’re going to need two yards of background fabric for your, your sashings here and that first outer border. If you want to do it all the background fabric the same yardage it will be a total of three. For your outer border you’re going to need a yard and a half. And we’ve got a great big 6 ½ inch border out here. And look at this back. Isn’t that great? I love this back. Don’t you just love this back? Anyway it’s 5 ½ yards or 5 ¼ yards for that. Let me check to make sure, 5 ¼. And I love that fabric on the back. It’s just really, really pretty.

So to make this quilt what you’re going to need to do is you’re going to take one of your five inch squares. And we’re going to cut it into four pieces. So four 2 ½ inch squares. If I lay this little 2 ½ inch ruler right along the edge, I can just cut it both directions like this. And that will give me four. So then we’re also going to take one of our five inch squares and we’re going to cut that into fourths. Again, I just love that I don’t even have to look at the measurements. I know I can just lay it just right on the edge and just cut it. Now for every little four patch that we make, you’re going to need four colors like this and two of the white ones. So this will work for the next block. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to save two of these out. Now these other two right here we’re going to make into half square triangles. We want them to remain the same size. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our little five inch square and I”m going to fingerpress a line right here. And I’m going to lay this on here and we are going to sew right on the line. Now when you sew on either side of the line you lose a half an inch. We want these to stay the same size so we’re sewing on the line. So I’m just going to set these on here. We’re going to head over to the sewing machine and sew right on the line.

Alright, here we go. We are going to make sure they’re lined up. And one more, this one scooted a little. And we’re going to sew right on the line. Let me get that in there. Oop, hang on, there we go. Sometimes it likes to just grab that fabric down there. Alright now what we’re going to do is we are just going to trim this off a quarter of an inch away from the seam like this, both squares. And then we’re going to head over to the iron and press them open. I’m going to put them dark sides up. Just set my iron on there and roll them back. Just like that. Alright I’m going to give it a little shot of steam and make sure they’re nice and flat.

Alright so now what we’re going to do is we have to put our little four patch together. So we’re going to put these in opposite squares. And this is going to go with our white fabric, our background fabric to the center. Just like that. So what we’re going to do now is we’re going to sew these together and make a four patch. So I’m just going to fold these over like this. Go over to the sewing machine and sew those right down. Oops I better remember that one. I’ll be sewing one by itself. Alright here we go. And the next one. I’m just going to lay it right in here, chain sew them together. Alright now let’s press these open. And when we press these you want to just again turn our, put our solids on top and lay it on there and roll it back and solid on top and roll it back. And by doing that because these are going on opposite sides they’re going to nest up. So now we’re going to come together like this and we’re going to next those up. Our seams are going opposite directions. So now we’re going to lay these together and you’re going to feel to make sure that little seam is lined up. We’re going to come over to the sewing machine and we’re just going to start right here and sew down. And then I’m going to stop and feel for that seam to make sure that that’s tucked right close nicely together. Alright. Let me just trim off these threads a little bit. We’re going to press this open and see how good our middle looks. Ooo, we did pretty good. Alright here we go.

Now you’re going to do this to all your blocks, just like this. And then we’re going to put these together to make a bigger four patch and watch what happens. We’ll put four of these together just like, oop. Just like this. Wait I’ve got this setting wrong. We’ve got to have the blocks to the middle. The four patch to the middle. Just like that. And our four patch in the middle. And look at that cute little star that it makes. Isn’t that adorable? So let’s sew these together. And again I’m just going to lay them on here and line up our seam. Remember your four patch goes into the center. There we go. And these I’m just going to grab them and lay them on top and sew them together. Match our little seam. Then these two right here we’re going to put together. So we match our four patch in the center. And let me show you that. Actually we’re just going to press these real quick. It always helps when things lay nice. Sometimes I get in a real rush and I’m just like a horse heading home, you know, just, just heading for that water trough. But sometimes it pays to just take a little minute and press. And so now we’re going to put this together. Make sure that little center seam right down here, make sure they’re going opposite directions. And if mine aren’t going opposite directions, I just make them go opposite directions. I just make them behave. Turn one the other way. Because once your block is together then you can come in and do all your pressing and making sure everything is perfect. Alrighty. The moment of truth, right here. Alright let’s go ahead and open this up. Alright. Oop, I have a little rumple over here. Sometimes you just have to be careful how you set that iron. You don’t want to slide it too much. And so then your block comes together like this.

So then obviously this little star here, this is when you’re ready to start putting your blocks together. So let me show you how that works. Now I have a stack of blocks here already done and this one too. And I’m going to, we’re going to sash them. Now this block should end up around eight inches. And let’s see how these are doing. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Oh I think eight finished. So this is 8 ½. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to take 2 ½ inch strips that we’re going to cut out of our background fabric. And we’re going to cut them at 8 ½. And we’re going to sash in between every block. Now the reason I say to measure this is because all of our quarter of an inch seams are different and your block could be a little different size. Whatever size it is, you want your sashing to fit this edge. So let’s count here, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Alright now this should fit our block. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to sew this here like this. Alright? Just a quarter of an inch right down the side. And then we’ll add the next block to that like this. And we’ll just lay it right on here, sew it down and we’ll add the next block. And this will be the sashing you’re going to put in between every block. So let’s just lay them up here so you can see how it’s going to look. Alright. Just like that. You’re just going to keep going.

Now let’s look at our quilt. One, two, three, four, five, six, and seven rows. And it just makes this great quilt. So once you get your rows together with your sashing, your 2 ½ inch strip like this. One of these isn’t long enough to go the whole width so you’ll just have to sew them end to end together and cut them to the size you need them. The size will be in the pattern. But once you get all that done you add your inner border, your outer border. And you are good to go. You get this gorgeous finished quilt. And it’s a pretty good sized quilt. It’s 74 by 84. So we hope you enjoyed this fun and quick project. It’s an easy one. It’s blocks we’re familiar with. And it just makes the cutest little twinkling star I’ve ever seen. So we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the twinkling star from the MSQC.