December Mystery Quilt (Aesop's Fables)

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas Season.  As usual, the holidays went by in a blur for us.  We had a great time traveling to Seattle to celebrate the marriage of  our son and delightful new daughter in law.  It was a fun get-a-way and we met some wonderful people but it is always nice to be home.  We got back just in time to piece the mystery quilt, cut the kits, create a pattern and run to the warehouse to pick up a little extra fabric for backing material.

As we started piecing the quilt, we decided we liked it so well it needed to be a bed size quilt.  So what you see in the photo is our not quite finished version.

A word of caution before you begin cutting.   You will need the entire width of the fabric (about 42 1/2 inches) to fit all of the pieces from.  Trim the selvage very sparingly. 

This quilt is done with two alternating blocks, a toile square and a star square.  We created the star block using the Quilt in a Day 2 x 4 inch flying geese ruler.  Follow the instructions in the pattern for cutting the squares to create the flying geese and alternate squares.

Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of a background square.  Place the background square in the center of a print square with the right sides facing. 

Sew 1/4 inch from the drawn line on both sides of the line.  Cut on the drawn line.

Press the resulting halves toward the print fabric.

Place the pressed squares right sides together with the seams running parallel and the outside edges aligned.  (The print on one should be facing the background on the other.)

Draw a diagonal line perpendicular to the seams.  Sew 1/4 inch on each side of the line and then cut on the line.

Cut a small snip in the edge of each section between the seams.  This will allow the fabric to be pressed in opposite directions.

Align the 2 x 4 inch flying geese ruler on the fabric and trim to create 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch flying geese. 

Trim the remaining three flying geese.

Sew a small (matching) background square to both ends of a flying geese patch.  Press toward the background.

 

Repeat to create two.

Sew a matching print square between the remaining flying geese patches.  Press toward the print square.

Sew the three sections together to create the star block.

 Repeat to create a total of 21 star blocks.



Sew the blocks together, alternating with the toile blocks.  Create 7 rows with 6 blocks in each row.  Press toward the toile blocks and sew the rows together.

 Sew on the 4 1/4 inch border strips to complete.

Quilt as desired.  Bind and enjoy!







January mystery quilt will be created using fabrics from the Milk, Sugar & Flower collection by Riley Blake designs.  See the photo at the upper left corner of the blog.