Monochromatic Sampler: Block Six Tutorial

The technique used for this block could very well be used for a black star on white fabric block. Although the original design has three starts on white, when I was putting this block together I felt like I wanted a bit of Konstant Kaos in the quilt.

I wanted to play around with a different applique technique this time. I've done raw edges and reverse applique, this one uses Freeze Paper.

Cut our fabric:

• 10 1/2 inch by 10 1/2 inch square in Black
  
• One star in colour of choice
  

To get the star shape I used a Wingding in MS Word and enlarged it to 650 font size (re-adjusted the font style to outline) then printed it out.

Applique Shape

Cut some Freeze paper the size of your star or stars. We are going to use the Freeze paper to fold over and press the edges of the star so that there are as little raw edges as possible.

Another quilter at the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild showed me this technique. She used it for hexing and used a clover mini iron press to press her hexes rather than baste her them before hand sewing them together. I want to try this with the Penrose Tiles Quilt. This does mean that you have to cut freeze paper in hex shapes, but I am sure that there is a paper punch out there somewhere that does it!

Cut your freeze paper star and start to gently press the edges over with no steam. Upto you whether you trim down the corners or fold them over. For this one, I trimmed the corners out so that it wouldn't b so bulky as an applique.

The result should be an applique with nice crisp lines.

Carefully remove the star from the Freeze paper, it should hold it's shape for long enough to sew it onto your fabric.

A bit of fray lock can be used on any raw edges, alternatively, you could have folded those edges over.

Attaching the applique

I used a strip of double sided interfacing around the perimeter of the star to lock the pressed edges in place. Alternatively, you could have cut out a star from double sided interfacing.

Remove the paper backing of the double sided interfacing and press in place onto your backing fabric.

Around the edges I used the blanket stitch on my sewing machine, but you could just as easily zig zag or straight stitch.

How are you going with the tutorials? I would really love some feedback on whether the instructions are clear and concise.