TREADLE ON AUTUMN TOBE 2005: “BIRDS IN THE AIR” 6”

Advanced Block

(Instructions by Elaine Terdal)


We have chosen the traditional Birds in the Air blocks, in a 6” finished size, 6.5” unfinished size.
The light colored fabric is to be unbleached muslin.
The darker colored fabric is to be in a range of darker colors in fall colors (gold, brown, dark reds, dark (not jewel tones) purples, etc.
ALL fabrics to be pre-washed for colorfastness and shrinkage, and of good quality.


The fabric requirements listed here are for pieces that yield 2 blocks for every dark/light pair of fabrics (print/muslin pair). You could use scraps from your stash, or plan on about a fat eighth (9” x 22”) of print fabric for every two blocks you make, so a yard an a half of a single print fabric should give you the required 24 blocks, when combined with your muslin (you need less muslin than print). Or maybe use fat quarters, half yards, or whatever you have in your stash that fits the color scheme!


CUTTING: ALL MEASUREMENTS INCLUDE 1/4” WIDE SEAM ALLOWANCES.
FOR EACH TWO BLOCKS (AT A TIME), YOU NEED:


Cut from the print fabric: 2 squares, each 6-7/8” x 6-7/8”, for bias squares and large triangles.
Cut from the muslin fabric: 1 square 6-7/8” x 6-7/8”, for bias squares, and 2 squares, each 2-7/8” x 2-7/8”, for half square triangles.

Definition of bias square: pieced by seaming bias strips, THEN cutting the smaller squares, consisting of two half square triangles, after the big seam is pressed open. NO DISTORTION!

PLEASE NOTE: I know that most of you like to “trim to size” and cut bigger to allow for that. This is ALREADY figured in for that in the above measurements, with just a tiny bit of waste… but PERFECT blocks! This block CANNOT CANNOT CANNOT be trimmed up after assembly! You will lose your points and the whole overall design of the blocks will be lost. This is a VERY good reason to make 2 trial blocks beforehand. If you make a pair of trial blocks, and have trouble, please STOP! And email me for help.

I don’t intend to cause doubt; this is NOT a difficult block to make, or a difficult assembly method. I have taken LOTS of pictures in order for you to see clearly what is meant by the instructions. If you go through the instructions, looking at the pictures, for the first set of blocks, you should have good results. There are maybe more instructions and pictures than necessary, making it read or look more complicated than it is. It will be slower the first time through. After that, you should be comfortable enough to fly through the making of blocks with very little need to refer back to all the instructions.

Press seam allowances as directed, please. This gives you “butted up” seam joins. Sometimes you will be pressing towards the light, rather than the dark, for the sake of accuracy in seam matching.


This method is particularly good for cutting and layering all your squares together, then marking them, chain sewing, pressing, cutting, pressing, and cutting, as you go along. It will go really fast this way! But please make your trial blocks FIRST, before diving in! Ready? Let’s make some Birds in the Air!

 


PIECING THE BLOCKS


Here’s what you have after cutting, for 2 squares:

 



With right sides together, pair a large dark square with a large light square. Take pencil and ruler, and draw a light visible line diagonally from corner to corner on the muslin side. Then, take your ruler and measure 2.5” from that diagonal line, and draw another line, on either side. I made my lines darker than necessary, for visibility. PLEASE LOOK AT THE PICTURE BELOW, to see this step now:

 



Sew 1/4” AWAY from the center diagonal line, on either side. NOT ON THE LINE, but 1/4” away on each side of the CENTER LINE. Use your drawn line as the “edge of fabric”. Sew 1/4” away from the short outside lines, on the OUTSIDE ONLY (the side nearest the points).


If you are chain stitching (later, not for your trial blocks!) just go down the line, stitching one of these seams at a time. Then when you get to the end, turn around and sew the other side. Please pay attention to make sure you sew on the OUTSIDE of the short lines! (you can easily forget and sew on the wrong side… don’t ask me how I know!) You will have 4 lines of stitches.

I’ve used a strong contrasting thread in the pictures of these blocks, to show you where the seams are. Orange thread. Your “stitched square” should look like this now:



Clip your threads, take to the ironing board, and press the square so that any puckering is flattened and the seams sort of sink into the fabric. I use a bit of steam, but you do what you prefer. Don’t IRON, just do a quick press.


Go to your cutting mat, and cut on the pencil lines you drew earlier. You now have 4 pieces of sewn fabric, two are long, and two will be squares when pressed open.



Go back to the ironing board, and flip and press the long pieces with the seams toward the LIGHT side. Press the little squares created by the two most outside seams, with the seams toward the DARK. This is shown in the next picture, as best I could. AGAIN, PRESS THE LONG PIECES WITH THE SEAMS TOWARDS THE MUSLIN, AND THE TWO SMALL SQUARES WITH THE SEAMS TOWARDS THE PRINT FABRIC!

 


The seams are all now bias seams, and all you have to do is cut the squares used in the block. When you do, the bias seam is in the center, where it should be, and the outside edges are all on grain, and there will be NO STRETCHING, but perfectly sized little squares. The 2 little squares created from the outside seams will be oversized, and will just need to be trimmed to the correct size, later on.


Now, let’s cut the squares. Once you’ve done it, the process will seem simple. LOTS of pictures here!

Using your ruler (a square with a diagonal line from corner to corner is best for this), following the pictures, cut two squares, 2-1/2” x 2-1/2”, from each of the long strip units. Set the leftover (to be trimmed later) triangles aside for use further on. SEE PHOTO SEQUENCE!



Here I am cutting the first square. I have the ruler lined up on the diagonal, and slightly higher than a 2-1/2” square, so I can trim the bottom after this first cut, to make it exactly 2-1/2” square.


Here I have cut the first square, and moved the ruler up, to make the first cut of the second square. When you are used to this method, you can cut very tightly on the first cut (no overcut, or very little), so that you will end up with more “waste” at the top. This is an allowance so you are sure to have enough fabric to cut 2 squares, plus have leftover triangles. Can you see yet, where they will be?


I have made the second cut, for the second square… the pieces at the far left are waste… next cut:

Here, I have moved the first square out of the way, and turned the fabric around (you don’t have to, whatever is easiest for you)… lined up the ruler with the bottom of the square lined up at 2-1/2” mark, and will cut through….

 


….leaving… taa daa! two triangles, for later use. The scrap is at the bottom left. The first square has yet to be trimmed on the one side, to make it 2-1/2” square.

 

 

 



Here is the result. I’ve cut and trimmed 4 perfect squares from the two long strips, and 4 triangles. This project uses the muslin triangles. You can trim and save the print triangles for another project. Are we having fun yet???

 

 

Cut the remaining dark 6-7/8” square once, diagonally corner to corner, making two large half square triangles (HST’s). Cut the two small muslin squares in half diagonally, too.

 


Now we are going to trim , or “nub” the points. It is not necessary, but gets rid of those dog ears, makes the final assembly more accurate, and is easy to do. This may or may not be familiar to you, so I am again adding lots of pictures and explanations. If it IS new to you, it will be a new “useful tool in your belt.”
Nubbing, or trimming the points is a nice habit to get into. You can create your own templates for this, or purchase a little tool for it. Judy Martin makes and sells one; some quilt shops carry it or you can buy from her. I consider it “necessary equipment” and wouldn’t be without mine. No affiliation, other than I have her books, and some extra “tools”. Here’s her “Point Trimmer” laid over one of the small muslin triangles, hope you can see it. You lay the tool over the triangle in line with the straight grain, and the edges of the triangle, and trim, in this case I am showing it ready to trim the little point on the left side. Then you’d slide it up to trim the one at the top. It works with any size triangle; also works for more than triangles.



The “cheaper” and custom, alternative, is to make your own template the right size, just to do this trimming. This would be the only template you’d need to make for this project, and you could save it to use for others, as this is a common size in quiltmaking. To make a nubbing/trimming template for the 2-1/2” triangles, cut a 2-7/8” square out of your chosen template material. If you want it to be permanent, the plastic stuff is a better choice than paper. Cut this square once on the diagonal, just like you did the small muslin squares, then use half for your template. Measure 2-1/2” from the right angle corner, and trim off the point, straight, just like another tiny right angle. Do this on both short sides, so that both short sides measure 2-1/2” after trimming. See photo.



Trim where the muslin sticks out. You can usually trim about 4 in a layer at a time. More than that, and you risk being inaccurate. Don’t try to cut a big stack at a time.


Nub all the small HST’s. This template is also the right size to use to lay on the “waste” triangles leftover from cutting the squares. Just lay it on the triangles, lining up the edges, and trim away whatever sticks out. Save the colored triangles for another project, keep the two muslin ones for this one. You can trim the big colored triangles by measuring out 6-1/2” from the corner on each short side, and trim straight off. Careful and don’t cut off too much. You want the short sides to measure 6-1/2” on the big triangles. Here’s another photo, same template, cutting down the leftovers:


 

 


Everything is trimmed and ready to make TWO blocks:

 



Lay out your two blocks, so you know where everything goes, and throw that small pile of waste in the trash:

 



Sew the blocks in rows. Notice how the straight edges of the triangles exactly match the sides of the squares… no guesswork, you don’t even have to pin!

 


Press the top row with the seams going in either direction, towards the outside… the second row (one triangle, one square) with the seam going towards the muslin triangle. I don’t know if you can see the pressing real well in this picture, so I’ve included a “flip side” shot:

 

 



Sew the rows together, butting up the seams, which will be going in opposite directions, to make it easy. Add the last triangle, again, it lines up properly, and easily, because you’ve trimmed it!

 



Line up the pieced triangles over the large dark triangle, matching those nice trimmed edges; it will look like this:

 



Stitch your final seam from the pieced side. A pin or two could be used as insurance against slipping. The 1/4” seam should go just about from the corner of those angled edges, and through the + bars of the triangle points. I prefer a thread to the right of the cross, so the point doesn’t get swallowed up in the seam allowance, rather than stitching exactly in the intersection, but everyone works a little differently, and has different results. See what works for you when you do your trial blocks.

 


If you’ve been doing both blocks at the same time, these are your last seams. Open and press seam towards the dark print side. YOU’VE DONE IT! TWO BLOCKS!

 


Measure to see that they are 6-1/2” square. If not, did you take too big a seam allowance, or not enough? Adjust. If the blocks are a scant eighth of an inch off, plus or minus, they will work just fine; don't bother to trim, though. Leave as is. If they are off MORE than this, then adjust your seam allowance, or email me for directions on how to achieve a perfect scant quarter-inch seam.

 

Email me with questions, if you need to! Enjoy! Hope all this is clear.


Elaine Terdal - mailto:firefly57@wavecable.com