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Monday, December 31, 2012

Make It Modern: Mama Goose Tutorial

After I made this block my daughter named it Mama Goose.  Then she said.. "or maybe that is what you will call the quilt?"

This block is fairly straight forward and I will say at the outset that perfect corners and points are not required so don't kill yourself unstitching things if they don't turn out "perfect"  trust me, the little inconsistencies are what I love about handmade items.  Close is good enough for me.

These blocks are only part of the "Big Picture" and I will scan and upload my sketch of what I know the center of the quilt will look like in the end.  Of course when I am winging things at times I change my mind about how things will actually end up.  This is my first stab at something more modern though and the first time I've actually thought far enough ahead there is a sketch of what I hope most of the finished product will look like.  For a person who never uses a pattern this is a huge step for me! :D

What you will need:
Five, 3 inch squares of solid gray 
One, 8 1/2 inch square of the same solid gray
        I used Kona Iron but if you don't have that any gray solid that is close will do.
Eight, 3 inch squares of different prints (EDIT: No specific color palette.  Whatever you have will be great.  I cut from scraps and fat quarters to get a few different colors)


We are going to make 10 half square triangles.  The first step is to mark each gray 3 inch square from corner to corner like this:



Choose 5 of your print squares and put them right side to the opposite side of the gray that you marked like this:



Sew each set of a gray and print 1/4 inch to either side of your marked line. 




Next cut along your marked line:


Press your seam toward the gray, trying not to stretch the fabric as you press it:



Trim your dog ears.  Each of these HSTs should end up about 2 5/8 you can trim them to size if you need to.


Take the extra print blocks and cut them corner to corner to form triangles and then lay out your HSTs and 5 of the triangles so that the prints are mixed up and not right next to each other like this:


Now assemble the rows and then stitch the rows together as they are done.  I pressed the seams between rows open to cut down on bulk and make it lay flat:





Remember you don't have to fuss about perfection.  Close is good.  I always line things up the best and can and stick a pin or two in where the points are so that they end up close.

Next take your 8 1/2 inch square:


Cut it on the diagonal. 


I think you can see where I'm heading from this picture:


 Make sure that when you sew the sides on that it all lines up on the bottom of the big HST goose block. This way the top will have extra fabric for the seam allowance when I put it all together.  Like this for the Right side:



See how on the bottom it is straight and the top has an extra 1/4 inch or more?



Line up the left side and sew it on:


I trimmed mine up but you can leave your's untrimmed so that I can make the final trim so they are all the same size.  Your finished block should be about 8 1/8 by 15 3/4.  Remember if it is big I can trim it and if it is a smidge small I can ease it to fit.  My seams were exactly 1/4.  Usually I use a scant 1/4 seam but I was using a backup machine and I couldn't get it to do a scant seam. 


This is my sketch.  The center of the quilt where all the blocks are joined is going to be string triangles out of scraps, at least that is the plan.  The larger triangles that will be between the big HST flying geese might be strings also or I might do them in the solid gray and then applique something to them, I haven't decided yet.  This will be the center of the quilt.  The other 4 HST flying geese blocks (or Mama Goose blocks) will be incorporated on each end of the quilt to make it rectangular or I might make more of the blocks  and make it square, it all depends on where my brain takes me once I have the center portion done.


As I work on putting it all together I'll post how I'm doing it on my blog and I'm not going to hold onto this one to finish in the "future" I want to try and get it finished by March so my family can use it for a couple of months before we get into spring and summer!

Thanks in advance and if you have questions please ask, I am not the best tutorial writer so I might have left things out.

12 comments:

✾Jamie Lee Cooley✾ said...

This is a great tutorial! I love the way the center looks in your drawing. Do you have any color preferences for the prints?

Becky (My Fabric Obsession) said...

This is going to be awesome! Very cool design. Yes, let us know if you have any colors in mind.

Sarah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
stitchingandbacon said...

I love the design! I am looking forward to pulling my fabrics, I have tomorrow off, let the fun begin! I will wait to make sure you don't have a preferred color palette. Thanks for the great tutorial.

Renae said...

Soo cool! I love the design!

~Kelie~ said...

LOVE this idea!!!! I can't wait to see the finished quilt!!!!! I'm with the others....have any color preferences?


I'll be posting my block later...trying to figure out how to get the pics off my camera and onto my computer (new camera for x-mas and I have no clue how to use it!!!) LOL!

audrey said...

Yay! I can't wait to get started! Shall I chime in and also ask about color palette?

Jenniffier said...

Wow that is really neat. I can't wait to see it come together. Hmmm... what scraps should I pull now :)

Newbie Jen said...

Neat-o! I'm looking forward to trying this one out, but even more excited to see your quilt finished!

Holli said...

Hi - I've popped over from HotPinkQuilts - she had her finished Mama Goose block which looked very cool so I had to see what you were up to. This is going to be a great quilt and I admire your having pre-created a layout for it! I'll keep checking back to see how it comes together!

✾Jamie Lee Cooley✾ said...

Mine is done. I'll mail it Thursday.

Dawn said...

This is a really cute pattern. I love the giant scrappy flying geese. I can see a quilt with those that is totally scrappy (my favorite kind of quilt)!