Millie Stars February - Royal Blue

Millie Stars - February - Royal Blue- Page 1 of 5

Blocks used in Star Rosette 2 Center: Make 1 - Feb 10th from The New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar (Photo Step-Out Feature) 1st Round: Make 6 - Block 47: Janet from The New Hexagon book 2nd Round: Make 6 - Feb 13th from The New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar

Read all instructions before proceeding

©2018 Katja Marek All rights reserved. Instructions are for personal use only. Each participant must own their own copy of The New Hexagon (©2014 Katja Marek) and The New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar (©2016 Katja Marek) to make the blocks mentioned in these instructions. No commercial use is authorized. By that, I mean that you may not sell these instructions or make copies of the original blocks in the book or calendar to include with these instructions. You may however print these instructions for participants of a class, club, or Block of the Month program provided that each participant owns their own copies of the book and calendar. Please give credit to me as the designer if showing or selling a finished quilt. Paper Pieces (paperpieces.com) is the only company I have authorized to create and package English paper piecing papers and acrylics under my name.

If you choose to machine piece these blocks and backgrounds, it means stopping and starting at the 1/4” marks on every seam. There are of course exceptions to every rule… If you are sewing a ‘Y’ seam (think ‘Y’ where the seams come together, as opposed to ‘t’ where seams intersect), then you will always stop and start at the 1/4” mark or it will be impossible to join your pieces. However, if you have a seam that does not require ‘Y’ seam piecing, as in the block shown in the photo step-out, piecing to the end of the seam is possible.

©2018 Katja Marek All rights reserved. See details on page 1.

For machine piecing: You will require the Millie Star window acrylics with 1/4” seam allowances for the star rosettes, plus the acrylics with 1/4” seam allowances and drilled corner holes for the background pieces, both available at: www.PaperPieces.com

Machine Piecing Photo Step-Out for the February 10th block from The New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar

Millie Stars - February - Royal Blue - Page 2 of 5

- seam allowances can be pressed open or to one side as desired - backstitch to secure thread at the beginning and end of each seam. - it is better to be one stitch shy than one stitch over the 1/4” mark

1/4” seam allowance window acrylics are the perfect tool for cutting your fabrics, whether or not you decide to fussy-cut. The 1/4” seam allowance will also allow you to mark the sewing line onto the reverse side of the fabric.

For this block you will need 3 - C3 (1 1/2” half-hexagons), 3 - F6 (1 1/2” equilateral triangles), and 3 - N4 (1 1/2”x3” parallelograms). I used largely tone-on-tone and solids, combined with 1-2 prints, all within 1 color family. Mark the seam allowance on the wrong side of each piece.

I always find it easiest to lay out the block, as I will be piecing it together. I then develop a piecing plan. In the case of this block, I would piece the triangle to the half-hexagon, to form a parallelogram unit. Attach this to the N4 parallelogram to form the 6-point diamond unit. Make 3. Sew the 3 diamond units together to create the 3” pieced hexagon block.

Millie Stars - January - Fuchsia - Page 3 of 5

©2018 Katja Marek All rights reserved. See details on page 1.

Sew the equilateral triangle F6 to the half-hexagon C3, to form a parallelogram unit. Stopping and starting at the 1/4” mark is not necessary, as no ‘Y’ seam is created. Make 3. Press the seam allowances open.

Place the pieced C3/F6 parallelogram unit right side together with the N4 parallelogram so that the point of the underlying parallelogram forms a ‘V’ and the bottom of the ‘V’ is at the 1/4” seam line. At the opposite end, line up the clipped point of the triangle with the underlying parallelogram. Stitch with a 1/4” seam allowance. As this does not become part of any ‘Y’ seam it is not necessary to stop and start at the 1/4” marks. Make 3. Press the seam allowance towards the N4 parallelogram. Line-up two adjacent diamond units, right sides together, lining up the raw edges and pinning in place. Stitch this seam from the 1/4” mark to the 1/4” mark.

The third diamond will be pieced into the ‘V’ between the first two diamonds. Line up the raw edges of the next seam to be sewn, pin, and stitch only from the 1/4” mark to the 1/4” mark. Repeat for the last seam to be sewn. Press the seam allowances towards each of the N4 parallelograms, forming a nice neat swirl in the center of the block on the backside.

©2018 Katja Marek All rights reserved. See details on page 1.

Millie Stars - January - Fuchsia - Page 4 of 5

As you can see the seam allowances on the outside edges of the blocks can still be moved out of the way as needed. Make one of the center Feb 10th block (featured in this photo step-out), six of the 1st round blocks, Block 47: Janet. Attach the 1st round blocks one at a time around the center block, and then close all the seams between the blocks. Once the blocks are completed each outside edge of the hexagon block can be treated as one seam (no stopping and starting at every intersecting seam is required), but make sure to pin all points and seams. Make the six Feb 13th - 2nd round (star point) blocks and attach them to the outside

The fabulous fabrics that I’ve used in the photo step-out are from the line ‘Healing Waters’ by Mark Anthony Jacobson for Northcott.

Congratulations on finishing

your 2nd Star Rosette!

A

A

B

B

C

Planning and Piecing the Background Instead of waiting until all the Star Rosettes are finished, why not start planning and piecing the background now. Cut and piece a few each month, and the task won’t be too overwhelming at the end. I pieced my background hexagons into columns and then attached the columns to each other to create the 2 - A and 2 - B units shown. You will need the following:

176-3”Hexagons 20-3”Half-Hexagons 36-3”PartHexagonsSetaside26hexagonstobepiecedintotheedgesoftheStarRosettestocompleteunitC.

©2018 Katja Marek All rights reserved. See details on page 1.

Millie Stars - February - Royal Blue- Page 5 of 5