Just the Basics Mystery Quilt - Flying Geese and Square-in-a-square

Welcome back for month 3 of the Just the Basics Mystery Quilt!

 

It has been a lot of fun seeing the piles of finished HSTs made after last month's instructions were posted. Whew! 128 was a lot, but you guys rocked it :)

Introduction

Running from March to August 2016, the Just the Basics mystery quilt-a-long will require no special rulers and no scary techniques. The design is confident beginner level and there will be no paper piecing, no applique, no improv piecing and no y-seams! Not that there's anything wrong with any of those techniques, but sometimes it's fun to see what you can make out of basic blocks.

I promise, the basics are anything but boring!

It's never too late to join in. All of the posts can be found under the tab at the top of the blog, so you can start anytime. New posts will be published here on the first Wednesday of each month. You can follow Devoted Quilter by Bloglovin, email or Feedly to be sure you don't miss anything - the links are all on the sidebar. 

Remember, you can choose to make the Just the Basics mystery quilt in the 48" x 48" baby/wall size or the 60" x 72" throw size. Either way you'll cut and piece the units the same, but you'll make more of each unit for the throw quilt.

If you're on Instagram, don't forget to share your progress! Use #JustTheBasicsMysteryQuilt and tag me @devotedquilter.

In case you're just getting started, March was fabric selection and April was HSTs. Now let's get going!

This Month's Instructions

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, this month we'll be making two different units, flying geese and square-in-a-square. Again, we'll make both a little larger than needed and then trim them down so they'll be perfect.

Once again, as a reminder, here are the fabrics I've chosen for my quilt.

Flying Geese

Like HSTs, flying geese appear in many quilts and quilt blocks. You can check out my Pinterest Flying Geese board to see some examples. We'll be using fabric 1 for the 'geese' and fabric 2 for the 'sky'. With my fabrics, that means the geese will be grey and the sky will be blue.

For the wall/baby size, you need 64 flying geese.
For the throw size, you need 120 flying geese.

We'll be making these using the four at a time, no-waste method and chain piecing too. Don't you love how chain piecing can speed up the process?

Cut

For baby/wall size

From fabric 1 - 16 squares 5 3/4" x 5 3/4"
From fabric 2 - 64 squares 3 1/4" x 3 1/4"


For throw size

From fabric 1 - 30 squares 5 3/4" x 5 3/4"
From fabric 2 - 120 squares 3 1/4" x 3 1/4"


On the backs of all of your fabric 2 squares, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner.

Right sides together, position 2 fabric 2 squares in opposite corners of a fabric 1 square as shown. The fabric 2 squares will overlap in the middle and the drawn lines should form one continuous line. Pin. Do this with all of your fabric 1 squares so that the whole pile is ready for chain piecing.

Stitch 1/4" away from the line on both sides. Don't break your thread between squares, just keep feeding them into your machine with only a couple of stitches between them to create a long chain of squares. Chain piecing in this way is much faster and reduces thread waste. When all the squares are sewn, cut the threads joining them.

 Cut apart on the drawn line.

 

 Press the fabric 2 triangles open.

Right sides together, position another fabric 2 square in the corner of the fabric 1 triangle as shown. Be careful that the drawn line is positioned as shown. Pin. Again, do this for all your units at once.

 Stitch 1/4" from the line on both sides.

Cut apart on the drawn line and press the fabric 2 triangle open.  You now have what is likely a somewhat imperfect flying geese block, as these blocks are also notorious for being hard to piece perfectly.

A little trimming will fix that right up and you'll have a perfect 4 1/2" x 2 1/2" block.

You will notice in these pictures that I used two different rulers. That's because one of my rulers is really long and somewhat unwieldy and my smaller one doesn't have a 45° line on it. You can certainly do all of this trimming with one ruler.

With the flying geese block on your cutting mat, position your ruler so that the 45° line is exactly on top of the diagonal seam in your block and the 1/4" mark is exactly touching the tip of the triangle. Trim across the top of the unit.

Now align the top of your ruler with the top of your block. Position the 2 1/4" mark at the point of the triangle and trim the right hand side of the block.

It seems I forgot to take a picture of the next step (sorry!). Turn the block so that the top of the block is now at the bottom and align the bottom of the ruler with the bottom of the block. Position the 2 1/4" mark at the point of the triangle and trim the side.

All that's left now is to trim the excess off the bottom of the blocks, and that can be done in batches. Align a couple of blocks so that their tops are even. Trim the blocks to 2 1/2" wide.

And there you have it - perfect flying geese!

Square-in-a-Square

Square-in-a-square blocks, and their siblings the economy blocks, are not quite as famous as HSTs and flying geese, but they still pop up in plenty of quilt designs. Unfortunately, they are also hard to piece perfectly (are you sensing a theme here?), but making them a little larger than needed and then trimming eliminates all the hassle of trying to sew together imperfect blocks. We'll be using fabrics 3 and 4 for our square-in-a-square blocks, and in my fabrics that means the orange and black fabrics.

For the baby/wall size, you need 16 square-in-a-square blocks.
For the throw size, you need 30 square-in-a-square blocks.

Cut

For baby/wall size 

From fabric 3 - 32 squares 3 1/2" x 3 1/2", cut once diagonally to yield 64 triangles
From fabric 4 - 16 squares 3 3/8" x 3 3/8"

For throw size

From fabric 3 - 60 squares 3 1/2" x 3 1/2", cut once diagonally to yield 120 triangles.
From fabric 4 - 30 squares 3 3/8" x 3 3/8"


Fold a fabric 4 square in half and crease lightly. Fold one fabric 3 triangle in half along the long side and crease lightly. Place the triangle right sides together with the square, matching the creases at the top edge and matching the point of the triangle with the crease on the square. The ensures that the triangle is perfectly centered and straight. As you can see in the picture, the points of the triangle will extend past the edges of the square. Do this with all of your fabric 4 squares, then chain piece all of them at once.

Press the triangle open and repeat with another fabric 3 triangle on the opposite side of the square. Press the second triangle open.

Fold the square in half in the opposite direction and crease lightly. In the same manner as before, add triangles to the two remaining sides of all of your fabric 4 squares.

Now you have (once again) slightly imperfect blocks ready for trimming. We will be trimming these to 4 1/2" squares.

Line up your block on your cutting mat so that the top and bottom points of the center square are exactly on a line. I used my small ruler to check that the points were lined up.

 Now measure 2 1/4" from the center points and trim the side.

 As you can see, 2 1/4" from the center points leaves me exactly 1/4" from the side point.

Trim all four sides the same way. If you have a rotating mat (or one that's small enough that you can turn it and still reach your block easily), then you can line up the center points, trim the first side and then turn the whole mat to trim the second side. Then turn the block, line up the center points and trim the remaining two sides. Otherwise, just turn your block and line up the center points before trimming each side.

And now you have perfect 4 1/2" square-in-a-square blocks!

That's it for this month! I can't wait to see your progress! Don't forget to tag me (@devotedquilter) and use #JustTheBasicsMysteryQuilt if you're on Instagram. You can also leave me a link to a blog post in the comments or email me a picture (devotedquilter at gmail dot com).

I'll be back with the next step in June!

One more thing...Did you see my giveaway in this post? I'll be picking a winner tomorrow (Thursday ) night, so there's still time to enter :)

What Do They Really Want?

Before I start this week's devotion - did you see my giveaway in this post?

Devotion for the Week...

There are a lot of voices in this world that we can listen to, many of which are trying to get us to buy something. Many of those voices are subtle and it can sometimes be hard to realize that we're even listening, let alone realize that we're allowing those voices to tell us what to do.

King Darius had some not-so-subtle voices telling him what to do, but he still seems to have been rather clueless, both about their motives and their influence over him. The story comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 6. Daniel is a slave in the kingdom of King Darius, where he has been appointed as one of the government leaders. In fact, Daniel is so good at his job that Darius plans to put him in charge of the entire kingdom, which makes his colleagues jealous. These colleagues poke around in Daniel's work, trying to find something (anything!) they can use against him to keep him from getting this promotion, but there's nothing to be found. Daniel is good at his job, plain and simple. He's honest and conscientious, not cutting corners or taking bribes or anything else that could get him in trouble.

Since they can't accuse him of incompetence, these jealous colleagues decide to use Daniel's devotion to God (particularly his habit of prayer) against him. "So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: “May King Darius live forever! The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed" (Daniel 6: 6-8).

Talk about trying to flatter your superiors! These guys come to the king and say, "We think you're so great that for the next 30 days all the gods that the people of this nation worship should be replaced by YOU. Let everyone pray to you and only you, because you are so great."

And Darius listened to them! I want to jump into the story and shake the man! If he just sat back and thought about this suggestion for a moment, he could maybe see what they were trying to do, but instead, he just "put the decree in writing" (v.9). Really.  

Well, the jealous colleagues rushed out, caught Daniel when "he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before" (v. 10), and then rushed back to the king to tell him that his law wasn't being obeyed. 

The king, to his credit, tried everything he could think of to rescue Daniel, but nothing could be done. Come sundown, Daniel was put into the lions' den and the king spent a terrible night worrying, unable to eat or sleep. All of which could have been avoided if he had just considered the motives of the men who suggested the law in the first place.

Of course, we'd never act without first stopping to think about the motives behind what we're hearing, would we? Unfortunately, we would.


There are believers who live in constant shame because of their past, unable to accept that nothing is beyond the grace of God. They have heard the whispers of our enemy who delights in telling us that our sins are too much for God to forgive. But the Bible tells us, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:1,2).

There are those who believe their worth lies in their physical appearance, believing the voices of beauty companies, who exist only to make money selling their products. And yet we know that God created each one of us specifically and carefully, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb" (Psalm 139:13,14).

Every message we hear has a motive behind it. It is crucial that we stop to consider what that motive might be before we act on what we hear.

100,000, Something New and a Surprise!

It feels like it has been a big week here at Devoted Quilter!

I've been watching my blog stats page a little more closely lately, waiting for this:

...and it happened yesterday morning. 100,000 pageviews!! Thank you all so much for visiting me here :) If it weren't for you, I'd just be talking to myself!

Also yesterday, I finally stopped procrastinating and got everything set up for a Devoted Quilter newsletter. How often do I really want to do something, but put it off and off and off because I don't know exactly how to do it, or where to start, only to try and then find it's not really all that hard? I really should learn this lesson and stop the procrastinating!

It's funny the things that can hold me up sometimes. Picking a name seemed like a major hurdle, though I'm not sure why. I finally just googled 'newsletter name ideas' and when I saw the word bulletin I knew I'd found my name. I love that the word has an association with church too!

I was also hung up on what date to send it out. I knew I only wanted a monthly newsletter, not weekly or even twice a month. That part was easy. But when in the month should I send it? The first of the month seemed too crowded...everyone sends out their new BOM blocks on the first of the month. I don't want to get lost in the flood of new quilting stuff coming into inboxes all on the same day. The 15th of the month, while less crowded, felt uninspiring. I briefly considered the last day of the month, but wasn't really feeling that, either. Then I thought of the 16th. Now, to most people, the 16th would seem like an odd choice, but I've always felt a certain fondness for the 16th of the month. My birthday is the 16th of July, my mother's the 16th of April, my grandmother's the 16th of May and my husband's the 16th of June. I thought for sure at least one of our children would have a 16th of the month birthday, but alas, they all landed on different days. For my newsletter, though, the 16th of each month is perfect!

So, The Bulletin will be a monthly round-up of Devoted Quilter news and links to fun things to make, sent on the 16th of each month beginning in May. The links in each issue will be themed, so if you think of any great theme ideas, you can let me know. There will probably be recipe links too, because we all need good food to fuel the sewing. To receive The Bulletin each month, just enter your email address in this form.

Are you still with me? I promised a surprise in the post title, didn't I? The whole time I was watching my stats page, calculating when I thought I'd hit the 100,000 mark (sometime in May, I thought), I was also wondering what I could do to celebrate. I'd like to send you all a little something to say thanks, but obviously I can't do that. But I can give you all the chance to win something!

To show my profound appreciation for your visits to my blog, for your friendship and your many kind comments, I'm giving you the chance to win my Denim Hexies mini quilt.

To enter, since these are hexie flowers, leave a comment on this post telling me something about you and flowers. It could be your favourite flower, the flowers you just planted in your garden, the last time someone gave you flowers...anything! I look forward to reading all of your flower tidbits :)

This giveaway will stay open for one week and I'll use the random number generator to pick a winner the evening of Thursday, May 5th.

Good luck, and don't forget to sign up for The Bulletin!

** This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Tish Stemple (comment #9)! **