United We Stand

(Note: Those instructions that pertained to the mechanics of the original UWS Exchange have been removed. The instructions that are left are for making the block and quilt variations, and would be applicable to either a memorial 9-11 quilt or any Friendship Star quilt.)

Treadle On's ninth TOBE exchange was a response to people's feelings after 9-11. It featured the usual 6 1/2" block, but was also different in that all of the previous designs were simple basic patterns and instructions could be written in such a way as to produce oversize blocks that could be trimmed to perfect size. With TOBE IX, we moved into the realm of more complicated paterns that require precise measurement and sewing. This was a more demanding exchange, but one that offered a new level of learning for those whose quilting experience was pretty much limited to the Treadle On TOBE program.

The block pattern for this exchange was a traditional one called the "Friendship Star". As with all old patterns, it has other names as well, but this is the most common. It is probably the simplest star pattern of all, and is tremendously versatile, being featured in many different total quilt patterns.

Please print these instructions out and tape them to the wall behind your sewing machine, so you will be able to see them every time you sit down to sew. it will help.

Here is a picture of this basic block:

Block A and Block B

You will note right away that we are dealing with two color variations of the same pattern. Block A has a blue center and red points, while Block B reverses those colors.

 

Fabric:

This description assumes that you are making the UWS quilt. Obviously, if you are just making a Friendship Star quilt, choose your own fabrics and colors.

Fabric should be red, white and blue. The white should be a pure white, either white calico or bleached muslin. No white on white prints. The red and blue should be very small prints. You will note above that my red has little white stars, the blue tiny white dots. I couldn't find the blue with the little stars or I would have used it.

Be very certain to wash your fabrics in hot water to shrink them and to make sure they won't bleed. Red is notorious for bleeding. it would be a good idea to wash it twice, all by itself.

The exchange consisted of 48 blocks (24 A - 24 B). Many participants did a double exchange so they could make a larger quilt. However, 48 blocks will make a nice quilt.

 

Cutting and Making the Block Elements:

OK, now for instruction on how to actually make the blocks. Please, please, please read the instructions all the way through a couple of times before beginning. I said above that this is a challenging block. It is. However, in spite of the fact that it demands precision and cannot be adjusted after the fact as readily as those TOBE blocks we have made in the past, I will be tossing in a few adjustment techniques. These will come close to the end, so again, read the whole thing before you start. Make practice blocks. These adjustment techniques are dependent on your willingness to engage in a little "sloppy, guy-type quilting" (cf: "Treadle On Beginner's Quilting Book"... in Treadle On Publications). This will work fine, thanks to the "Man on Horseback Rule", or for kite makers, the "200 Feet in the Air Rule". Those who are experienced, skilled quilters who normally do better work than I do anyway can ignore those instructions.

You are going to need 24 Block A's and 24 Block B's. After washing and ironing your fabric, cut 24 2 1/2" red squares and 24 2 1/2" blue squares. These will make your centers. Then cut 192 2 1/2" white squares for the four corner blocks. Actually, I would cut quite a few extra of everything, but these numbers represent what is required for the actual number of finished blocks needed. You will now have the centers and the corners of your blocks. (Have you caught on that this is actually a 9 patch block?)

You will also need a total of 96 3 1/2" white squares and 48 each 3 1/2" red and 3 1/2" blue squares. These will be used to make half-triangle square patches that will become the star points. The technique for making half-triangle blocks is such that you will be making two at once.

 

Here are the cut pieces, ready to start making blocks... 2 1/2" blue squares; 3 1/2" blue squares;

2 1/2" red squares; 3 1/2" red squares; 3 1/2" white squares and 2 1/2" white squares

Let's make those half-triangle blocks first. Lay a 3 1/2" white square over a 3 1/2" blue square, print to the inside. Draw a light pencil line from one corner to the opposite corner. Stitch a seam 1/4" to either side of the line. You can line up a bunch of these and chain stitch them to save time. Once you have the two seams stitched, cut on the pencil line.

 

3 1/2" white square laid on 3 1/2" blue square, pencil line drawn and seam stitched to either side

... and roller cut into two pieces

Open each piece and iron the seam to the dark side. This will make your supply of half-triangles, but they will all be oversize. Next, you have to trim them so that they will be a perfect, square, 2 1/2".

 

Olfa rule (square) set on oversized ironed half square triangle. Note that the 45 degree line has been carefully matched to the seam.

Here a roller cutter has been used to trim the top and right sides.

 

Patch has been rotated so that the trimmed sides are now bottom and left. Note that both the left edge and the bottom are on the 2 1/2" lines of the ruler. 45 degree line is again matched to the seams.

The excess has again been trimmed off of the top and the right sides, producing a perfect 2 1/2" half-triangle block.

The above shows the process that I use to make half-triangles. It's slow, but it works, and for the next stages, you know that you are starting out with perfectly matched blocks to assemble your nine patch.

Obviously, after you do the required blues, you need to do the reds. You should end up with 96 blue and white squares and 96 red and white squares.

 

Assembling the Whole Block:

Once you have all of the 2 1/2" squares ready, you can assemble the Friendship Star blocks. Lay a center block down, then a white block on each corner. then lay in four bi-colored blocks (the star points), making very sure to get the rotation right. You should have printed these instructions out and have a picture lying there to compare to. Sew the top row of three patches together, then the middle, then the bottom. Iron the seams over in such a manner that each row's seams face in the opposite direction, so that you get smooth joins.

 

Nine "patches" laid out as they will be assembled in a finished block

 

Here, the rows have been assembled as described, and you are looking at the back. Note that the top row's seams are ironed tot he right, the middle row's to the left, and the bottom row's to the right again. Match the seams up and sew the rows together.

 

A finished pair of blocks... Be sure that all the stars' points are correct. I suggested that you make quite a few extra patches. This will permit you to reject those that are too far off.
On the star blocks to the left, note that the points do not come all the way out to the edge. In a perfect block, the point will be 1/4" from the edge. If your pint is coming all the way to the edge, when you sew the blocks together with a 1/4" seam, you will chop off the points. If the points are more than 1/4" from the edge, when you sew the blocks together, the points will not touch the seam.

 

Adjustment Techniques:

Okay, here are some "secrets" to help you get these right. The fact of the matter is that if you are perfect, you don't have a problem. If you are only nearly perfect, you could have a big problem. Any errors, seams that aren't straight in particular, will result in irregularities at the eges of your blocks. If the irregularities are convex, i.e. point outward, you may be able to trim them off by using the Olfa square and measturing an accurate 6 1/2", just like you did for the half-triangle squares. However, if the irregularities are concave... oops. You can't trim a concavity off .Also, fat or oversized seams can easily result in undersized blocks. Very narrow seams can result in oversized blocks, and when you trim them, you may find you have trimmed too close to the points.

So, what can you do to insure that all, or at least most, of your problems will be trimmable? Two tricks will make it work like magic.

First, when cutting the blocks, you will be using some kind of measuring rule. Olfa is the most popular, so I will instruct you on that assumption. If you sutdy the Olfa rulers, you will note that the lines are not very fine. The major lines at inch, half-inch and quarter-inch points are actually a bit thick. OK, this leaves you with an opportunity to fine tune your cutting. You can put the line on the fabric such that it barely touches the fabric; you can put it on the fabric with the fabric edge exactly centered on the line; or you can put it on the fabric with the whole line past the fabric's edge. Based on whether you are cutting from the right or th left, figure out which of these options will produce the the widest square. In other words, cheat! So your nominally 2 1/2" square is actually 2 9/16", or maybe 2 17/32". (Yes, with two assembly seams in the block in each direction, you could end up with a block that is 1/8" or 1/16" too wide). So what? If you have problems at the edge of an oversized block, they will probably be trimmalbe. Now, here is the secret to making this trick work... be consistent. If you are reading these instructions, it is long after the exchange, so you will be dealing with only your own blocks... this is a big advantage. In the exchange, each person ended up assembling blocks from 47 other people!

Secret number two involves a similar philosophy. When sewing the squares together to make the block, you will be feeding the fabric into the sewing machine foot. With care (and/or a specially made 1/4" piecing foot), you will have learned how to produce good 1/4" seams. Your technique will depend somwhat on your seating, somewhat on your lighting (the angle of shadow on the edge of the foot can affect your seam width), and on the accuracy of your eye. For instance, on the older top clamping machines, there are no nice neat modern 1/4" piecing feet availlabe. You will have to put down a piece of tape, or an icebox magnet, or learn to just "eyeball" how much fabric stays outside of the the foot, or inside the edge of the foot, as it goes through. Trial and error and a little practice will teach you to adjust your techique to "pinch" or "stretch" your approach as necessary to produce good 1/4" seams for each project and difference in fabric. In this case, we want to favor ending up with a very slightly oversized block. So, if having the fabric enter the foot with the fabric edgfe virtually exactly at th edge of the foot produces a 1/4" seam, but we want to favor a slight oversized block, let the fabric move in a bit, so that its edge is just inside the foot, say by about 1/32 of an inch. You will end up with a shy seam, but a generous block, which may help you with this particular pattern.

I'm sure you can see the necessity of making practice blocks. If you do that, you wil find that you can learn how you and your sewing machine can work together to produce perfect 6 1/2" blocks for this project.

I hope that you have a lot of fun, learn some new techniques, and produce a good batch of blocks.

 

Assembling a Quilt:

Many books cover the basics of assembling a quilt, i.e. the use of 1/4" seams, the possibilities of sashing, on-point structure, etc. There is no need to cover it all here. However, there are some examples of how folks assembled the United We stand blocks:

 

This is a runner for under a hand crank machine. Since it requires only nine blocks, it makes an excellent practice project to make sure you have the techniques of making accurate blocks down before you tackle a major quilt. This was a test piece, and I was deliberately trying blocks that "rotated" in different directions... an option, but one that I decided against for the exchange in order to keep things simple.

This is the Friendship Star block, used in conjunction with an Irish Chain pattern. With this pattern, you could make two quilts with your 48 blocks. This quilt was done by Laura MacDonald for the 1999 Treadle On Challenge. Note that her stars also rotate in opposite directions.

 

There follows several layouts done with the Electic Quilt computer program, by Barbars S. in NH. Note how they use sashing and/or on-point orientation to create different effects. In this quilt, the rows rotate opposite to each other.

 

 

 

 

This quilt was done by Mari in St. Louis for her son. It combines the Friendship Star block with the Log Cabion block. The pattern is out of the thimbleberries Book of Quilts by Lynette Jensen. it is the "Midnight Sky" pattern. Here the stars "agree" in rotation.