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I have had this on the drawing board for a long time ---waiting a certain number of months until the copyright reverts back to me so that I can post it here for you!
If you’ve followed along on my journeys over the past year, you’ll remember that it was suggested to me by DH that “We make a baby quilt” ((Emphasis on the word WE – uhhuh!)) for our friends Michael and Harriet and for Baby Michelle that was soon on the way. It quickly became a global project with African fabrics being gifted to me from all over the world.
I wrote more about it HERE and more HERE.
These blocks were so fast and so fun, that an extra block from this quilt went to Quiltmaker for my Addicted to Scraps Column. You can see the layout they did with it HERE.
I’ve had a lot of requests for the pattern as I did it, and I explained that I needed to wait a certain amount of time before posting it --- and here we are!
This quilt requires 25 Princess Crown blocks measuring 6” finished. The blocks are completely made from my 2” strip bins, with the addition of a 3.5” square for the center. I used my easy angle ruler along with the companion angle ruler and the 2” strips to make the flying geese unit in this block, but you can use any method that gives you flying geese units that finish at 1.5” X 3” in the block.
For each block cut:
1- 3.5” center square
4- 2” corner squares
8 half square “Wing” triangles cut from background fabric using 2” strips and the 2” marking on the easy angle ruler.
4 quarter square triangles cut from the color of your choice using 2” strips and the 2” marking down the center of the companion angle ruler.
Cutting Large “Goose” Triangles:
I prefer to cut through 2 to 4 layers of fabric, no more, no less! 2 layers seem to adhere to each other and keeps things from shifting LESS than if you were cutting through just one layer. Try it! Using the 2” line that is marked on the center of the ruler, cut 4 goose triangles from a 2” strip.
If you are not using the Companion Angle Ruler, you can do this by cutting a 4-1/4” square, and then slicing it on both diagonals with an X to give you the 4 triangles required. I don’t keep 4-1/4” squares readily at hand, and I’d have to cut them from charms or fat quarters – not so convenient! But I “DO” keep 2” strips on hand…it was so easy to pull the strips I needed to cut the pieces for this block!
Cutting Wing Triangles:
Sometimes when using this ruler I go out of my way to AVOID cutting pieces in mirror image. But when making flying geese units, I WANT my pieces in mirror image so that every cut gives me one right hand wing triangle and one left hand wing triangle. Do the thinking BEFORE cutting – and everything will fit together swimmingly!
To create mirror image, simply fold your strip in half with right sides together. Use the 2” line on the ruler to cut 4 pairs of wing triangles, giving you 4 right hand ones and 4 left! If I were doing this the “Normal” rotary cutting way, I’d have to cut 2-3/8 squares. Not such a common size! I don’t save those. But I do save 2” strips! ALL the pieces for this block came right out of my Scrap User’s System in ready to use sizes.
Place your large goose triangles and arrange your right hand and left hand wing triangles as shown. See those notches on top? Those are placement guides! Invaluable for getting a flying goose unit that is flat across the top! If your notch is at the bottom end instead of the top, never fear, you can just use your easy angle ruler to nip off the OTHER corner as well.
Take a right hand wing triangle and place it against a goose triangle with right sides together. See how the notches match at the top? I align the bottom and bias edges –the top should already be even. If there is a problem, I take my piece, and my ruler and double check to be sure I cut right ---if I am off anywhere at all, it is usually operator error in the cutting department.
Feed all of the pieces through attaching the right hand wing triangles. If you look closely you’ll see my Cheddar Bow-Tie leader/ender at the back end!
Press the seam out toward the wing triangle just added and snip OFF that dog ear! That is the one thing I am really picky about – dog ears don’t need to be in your patchwork, and can make it hard to know how/where to line things up, and make your seam junctions REALLY bulky and a bear to quilt through. Get them out of there! Now take the left hand wing triangles and put them right sides together with the goose unit, matching the bottom edge and the bias edge. The blunted top of the triangle should be even with the top of the goose unit.
Sew all the left hand goose wing triangles into place --- and follow it up with more parts from another cheddar bow-tie! Two projects at once—I love it!
Here is what we are looking for! The crucial point!
You need to be sure your seam allowance will give you a 1/4” distance between the top edge of the goose unit and the top of that goose triangle. If it is wider than that, your seam allowance is TOO WIDE and your unit won’t measure 2” X 3.5” before sewing it into the block. If you have LESS than 1/4” here at the top of the goose triangle – your seam may be too skimpy and you will lose the nose of your goose when you sew the blocks into the quilt. Your unit may also measure LARGER than the 2” X 3.5” we are shooting for. Be careful with your cutting, careful with your seaming, and all will turn out right! I took this pic BEFORE snipping the dog ears off…gotta get them off of there!
Block Assembly!
I’m a little haphazardly messy and way thready, but this is how we roll around here!
Lay out your units the way they will appear in the block. We are going to chain this together 9-patch fashion. If you can imagine this block has 3 rows across and 3 columns from side to side…
Sew the second column to the first column with right sides together. You will notice there are chaining threads left between the rows! Leave those there. Now flip the units in column 3 over onto column 2 ---
Chain from row 1 to row 2 and directly onto row 3. Now there is no way that you can get things turned around in the wrong way!
Your block now looks like this….3 rows held together by chaining stitches between the rows. Now all you have to do is quickly press your rows to get the seams going the way you want --- I press toward the outer 4 corners and toward the center unpieced square ---and sew the rows together! One block done!
1 block completed! Make 25!
Here is a selection of blocks that went into my Princess Crown quilt! Blacks, Whites, Brights, and African fabrics!
I had a lot of fun pulling scraps for this quilt. Many of the African fabrics came from my friend Karol-Ann in the UK!
Setting the quilt:
I cut 60 2” X 6.5” Rectangles from assorted brights for the sashing pieces. Between them are 36 black-on-white cornerstones cut 2” square. Lay the quilt out as you want the colors to fall, cornerstones, sashing and all.
Join the quilt into rows ((I assemble the whole quilt with the whole top webbed together just as I showed in the block assembly above….think columns and rows and chain, baby, chain!)) Join the rows to complete the quilt center. Press seams toward the sashings.
Inner border: I used a 1.5” strip of several purple fabrics joined on the diagonal for the inner border.
The outer border is a collection of left over fabrics from the block assembly ----what was left of the African fabrics that Karol-Ann had gifted me and some others. I included this special fabric that was also gifted to me by another quilter:
It was PERFECT! Michael is from Kenya, and his wife, Harriet, is from Uganda. Michelle is 100% AMERICAN. :c) The Swahili words of love, unity and family brought tears to my friends’ eyes when they received the gifted quilt!
Stitch random 5” wide scraps together end to end until the border is large enough to fit the circumference of the quilt. Cut 4 borders to fit the quilt sides, and four 5" cornerstones for the border corners.
For more info on adding borders to a quilt click HERE.
I quilted the quilt with an edge to edge design called Moon Flower by Keryn Emmerson. I bound the quilt in purple ---washed the quilt to give it that home loved softness, and gifted it to our friends.
Is there anything as precious as a sleeping pink bundle on top of her very own quilt?
