Stepping Stones Sampler - Step Two, Finally!

Thanks for your patience in waiting for me to get this next step published.  March was a crazy month for me, I guess that's something we can all agree on.  But now I am determined to get back on track and get this Quilt Along going full steam ahead.  For this lesson, we'll be making Flying Geese units and sewing the center block of the sampler.  I'm going to show how I like to do this with a stitch and flip technique, but the instructions include an optional no waste method that makes four of them at a time.

I find that one of the easiest ways to make Flying Geese units is with this stitch and flip technique.  For this you will cut a rectangle and two squares for each unit.  You need to mark a diagonal line on the back side of the squares for a stitching line.  You can mark them with a regular or chalk pencil or you can gently fold your square in half diagonally and finger press a crease to sew on.  Or, you can get a little fancy and stitch using a laser line!  This is kind of neat, but I do find that the laser light makes my eyes a little irritated if I have to make a lot of these units.

Notice that this set is made with a print center and background points - you will need eight of these, and you'll want to set them aside for lesson five.

I like to chain sew when I can.  To trim these flying geese, I kept them chained while I trimmed the extra fabric off.

 After I trim them, I leave them chained, then bring to the ironing board and press the triangle out, then I clip them apart.

 Repeat this process for the second point, then trim and press.  Measure to make sure that your units are the right size.

For the center star we'll be making units with a background center and print points. This first one is marked with a chalk pencil.  I tried both pink and blue, but found that the marks were hard to see on this fabric.

 This one was marked with a finger pressed crease.  Sometimes you have to experiment to find out what works best for your particular fabric.

 After making the flying geese for the points and cutting squares for the corners you are ready to assemble your center block!

Lay out all your pieces to see what your block will look like...now we are going to put our block together using a technique known as "webbing".  It's called this because once you get the rows assembled they are held together with strings kind of like a spiders web!  It's really a great way of keeping your pieces in order as you sew.

Take the pieces in the middle column and flip them over like you are closing a book.  Then chain sew the three sections together.

Take the stitched units and lay them out again with the remaining units.  Flip the last three units over in the same way, pinning them to the units in the center column, and chain stitch together in the same way.

When sewing the flying geese units to the center, you can pin at the point of the flying geese to make sure that they meet just right, or you can just fold back the top unit to check the position, and hold it with your fingers as you sew.  Pinning may be easier for you at first, but I find that if you have cut and sewn accurately your units should match up pretty easily!

Make sure that your seam line doesn't go into the point of the Flying Geese unit.  You can even be a hair to the outside of the point so you don't cut it off when you press the seam over.

See how nice it comes out?

Now all you have to do is sew the horzontal seams and your block is done.  Press seams as indicated in directions.

Yay - the first block is done!

Have fun!  I'd love to see your color choices and progress, so feel free to share - use the hashtag #steppingstonesquiltalong and #pamelaquilts on instagram so we can find them easily.  I'm resisting the temptation to start a new version, but will be sharing pictures of the four I've made so far as we go!

 Thanks for quilting along with me!

Buy my pattern here:  Stepping Stones Sampler

Find the list of blog posts here:  Stepping Stones Quilt Along