rose star tutorial

Its Monday (for most!)
we know what that means..
..its time for my tutorial for English paper piecing

of the rose star block.
yay!
May I suggest that you read through a couple of times
so you really get to grips with it.
Have fun!

 When I was looking for a design for Marys mini quilt

I found Eileen and her beautiful quilt on her blog at

my quilting porch
Her blocks are quite a bit bigger than mine.

 Eileens quilt

 After much head scratching and puzzlement

I realised the pattern is actually a lot easier than it looks.

As you can see from my sketch it's basically dissected hexagons.

To start with work out your desired size of hexagon.

I used one that measured 3 inches across
from point to point.

I found a hexagon shape from google images
and printed it.
Edit 
Kreatives von mir has just shared her template (on flickr)
drawn up on squared paper.
It's a really helpful idea..
wish I was that clever! 

Measure halfway along on the sides shown above

and draw a line across to make the disected shapes.

note:

You can either make 3 cardboard templates to draw around
or you can just draw and measure as I have done.

For one block you will need 

1 hexagon

12 petal shapes

18 kite shapes

Cut out your fabrics roughly an extra 1/4 inch larger than your papers,
and tack them with large stitches holding the corners down as you go.
 Before you begin to sew them together,
make sure you like your composition.
Don't be afraid to try different fabrics,
I quite often find clashing fabrics can work really well.

I am using a mixture of vintage and new fabrics.

I've chosen to keep the centres solid as I'm going to hand quilt them.

With all your fabrics tacked to their templates

it's now just a case of sewing the correct pieces back together.

I don't think it matters what order you do it in,

as long as you end up with hexagon to hexagon.
Just check back with my original drawing if you get lost.

Hold the pieces together and whip stich over the edges

until you run out of thread.

Here I'm using a pale grey thread to blend better,

though on paler fabrics I've used white.

Here you can see my progress and see the hexagons reforming.

The finished back complete with papers,

which can be removed from the inside and used again.

Always keep the outer edge papers in place until you have sewn into your desired project.

So here it is

the rose star.
Once you understand how the jigsaw fits together
you can join blocks with a solid colour
still using the same templates.

 The fun thing about this pattern is choosing the colours and fabrics.

I like to use mixes that you might shy away from.

I do try and link the overall quilt together.

The dominant colour was turquoise, 

which featured on every block.

The finished size of the quilt is approx 20x30''

If you would like to have a go or see more.

why not join my block party on flickr

Click on the picture to take you there!
 
edit: I have recently discovered that this pattern may also be called
the kite pattern, as it is possible to make with just one template..the kite.
However, me being one for an easy and faster method,
I simplified the design by using one whole hexagon in the middle.
(for fussy cutting you could use the kite method instead)

Apparently the kite pattern is in the book Material Obsession two,
I don't own any material obsession books,
maybe I should!

If you love this pattern but can't sew by hand I think there is possibly
a machine technique out there somewhere.
I prefer paper piecing for it's accuracy
and take anywhere approach!

second edit:
There are some great hints and tips being posted in the flickr group,
do take a look!
Inspiration.

 The colour palette for this project was inspired by my

hand pieced quilt which I named.

summer of love