Woot! You made it! This month we’ll sew the last four blocks of the Pacific Stars mystery quilt – and they aren’t tricky – and then put all your blocks together to reveal your masterpiece.
I had so much fun laying out all my blocks together. I think that’s the best bit of making a quilt – when it all comes together and you can finally appreciate all your patience and hard work.
Right, are you ready?
Cutting Instructions for Month Six
From the light blue Fabric G cut:
Four 4 ½ inch squares
All your other pieces should have already been cut in previous months.
Construction
Use four light grey Fabric A 2 1/2 inch squares, eight turquoise Fabric C 2 1/2 inch squares and four purple Fabric E 2 1/2 inch squares to sew four, four patches using the layout shown in the photo below. Press seams in a clockwise direction when viewed from the front. We’ll call this Unit A.
Sew eight half square triangle units (HST) using four light grey Fabric A 2 7/8 inch squares and four turquoise Fabric C 2 7/8 inch squares. Press seams open. Remember, Carol’s squares to triangles tool makes quick work of making accurate HST. Have you tried it yet?
Sew eight light grey Fabric A 2 1/2 inch squares to the light grey sides of the HST units you just made, making sure you sew four to one light grey side and four to the other light grey side – see the photo below. We’ll call these unit B. Press as indicated by the photo.
Here’s the layout of your block below. I find it helpful to layout my blocks like this as I’m working on the individual units within them so I don’t get myself confused. I’d rather not use my seam ripper more than I have to!
Sew the light grey Fabric A rectangles to the long side of Unit B that has the turquoise side of the HST (four will be on one side and four on the other as in the photo above) and press as indicated by the photos below.
Following the layout photo below, construct the top row by sewing the light blue Fabric G 4 ½ inch squares to Unit B, pressing the seams towards Unit B. Sew Unit A and B together for the bottom row of the block, pressing the seams towards Unit B. Sew the two rows together, spinning your seams in a clockwise direction when viewing the block from the front.
You will have four identical blocks, all measuring 8 1/2 inches. And you have finished sewing all the blocks for the Pacific Stars mystery quilt. Go you!!
Final Layout
What do you think?!! Are you ready to join all those blocks together?
Below is a diagram showing where all the different months go. Take care with the mirror image blocks. I use a design wall (or a design floor!) to set everything out.
Once the whole quilt is laid out, join the centre blocks together in fours to make a large nine patch (you will add the long skinny blocks as a border after these centre blocks are sewn together).
For example, for the top left large block (refer to the photo below) join a month six to the month four, press seams to the month four block. Join a month four mirror image to a month two, press seams to the month four block. Join these two rows together and spin your seams. Note: when joining these large final blocks, MOST of your seams will nest, but not all. This is just how it has all worked out when designing and constructing a large quilt with lots of small pieces. Pin your seam intersections to help with precision if necessary.
Repeat with the other eight large blocks.
These are the large blocks you will have when you have done this next step: four each of the two blocks shown below;
four of the block shown below;
and one of the block show below.
Now you need to join these nine blocks together. Join the red section as a four patch, spin and press your seams in the direction of the red arrow. Join the two yellow section blocks together, press seams in the direction of the arrow. Sew the three blue section blocks together, pressing seams in the direction of the arrows. Now join the yellow section to the red, then the blue section last. You should be able to spin and press your seams on these joins also.
Add the final long skinny blocks one at a time using a partial seam to start. You can see how to do this in the photo below. Lay out the border blocks where they belong then sew the left hand side strip on starting a little way along the seam. Then sew on the top strip, you will be able to start right at the beginning for this one and sew right to the end. Continue sewing on the right hand strip and the bottom strip. Once you have sewn on the bottom strip you can finish the first seam on the left hand strip and YOUR PACIFIC STARS MYSTERY QUILT IS DONE!!
Now you can press it, baste it, quilt it and bind it – that makes it sound like a quick, easy process doesn’t it?! This is a good lap size quilt but if you would like a larger quilt you could either add plain borders, or I designed it so that you could extend the pattern out further to make it larger that way too.
Thank you so much for joining me on the journey of making the Pacific Stars mystery quilt. I had a whole lot of fun designing, making and writing this quilt up for you all to share. I hope to see some of your quilts over on Carol’s Facebook page when they are all done. Or show us in-progress photos, we’d love to help keep you motivated to get your own Pacific Stars mystery quilt finished.
© Carol’s Quilts 2017. All rights reserved.
Charlotte blogs at The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady