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Patches of Blue Quilt Along – Block 3 Aurora

  • Edyta
  • Mar 15, 2018
  • 2 min read

Updated: Jan 4, 2023

Welcome to our “Patches of Blue” Quilt along. I am so thankful you are joining us. I hope you have finished your previous blocks and please remember to tag us when you are posting them on Instagram and Facebook #patchesofbluequiltalong

I love seeing your pictures!


I have been busy picking our next block.


There are so many beautiful quilts to choose from.


One of them always catches my eye, it even made it on the front cover of our Patches of Blue book.


This cute little saw tooth star block looks lovely as a border in the “Shining Star” quilt on page 71.


It also glows and sparkles through the “Aurora” quilt on page 118.


I love stars – not only in quilting, do you?


Lets start by picking our fabrics. It should be smooth sailing, we need 6 blue 10″ squares and 6 light 10″ squares. 


Grab your fabric, rotary, ruler, and “Patches of Blue” book; cutting directions are on page 119. NOTE: You will be cutting 2 stars from each fabric instead of 4. We need 11 star blocks for the quilt, we’ll save the extra star block for later.

This month I would like to introduce you to one of my favorite little rulers, Bloc-Loc 1″ X 2″ finished. It is going to come in handy when making flying geese units.


Out of light fabrics, cut 4 quarter-square triangles and 4 squares for each star. (The exact measurements are in the book page 119)


Out of blue fabrics, cut 1 center square and 8 half-square triangles for each block.


Place 1 quarter-square triangle in light and 1 half-square triangle in blue right sides together. Notice I match perfectly the outside point and have a little overlap on opposite side then sew. It looks like I could use a new spool of my favorite Aurifil 2310 thread!


Press open, pushing your seam allowance towards the blue, and then add the second blue half-square triangle. Now its time to trim the little bunny ears.


After you press your flying geese, it is time for trimming to an unfinished size of 1-1/2″ X 2-1/2″. Grab your Bloc-Loc ruler and get ready to enjoy it!


Place your Bloc-Loc ruler on the front side of your flying geese, lock the grooves onto the seam allowance, and trim the outside of flying geese unit. Repeat for all of the flying geese.


Time to assemble your star block. Begin by laying out 4 flying geese, 4 background squares, and 1 center square.


Sew in three rows. Make sure the seam allowances are pushed towards the square. Join the rows to make a star. I love to use pins to keep everything in place.


The block is 4-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ unfinished. Make 11 Star blocks.


If you need a little help, don’t worry, you can click on this link and it will take you to our YouTube video where I will talk you through all the steps of making this star.


Before you put all your fabric away, please cut 8 light 4-1/2″ squares from your scraps. We will be using them when it is time to assemble the quilt.


Looking forward to seeing you next time!

Happy Quilting, Edyta


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Patches of Blue Quilt Along – Block 2 Gift Basket

  • Edyta
  • Feb 14, 2018
  • 3 min read

Updated: Jan 4, 2023

Happy Valentine’s Day and welcome to our Patches of Blue Quilt Along – Block 2!


I hope your Valentine’s Day arrived with baskets full of the most beautiful flowers,


and delicious kisses!


And speaking of baskets, our Quilt Along Block 2 is “Gift Basket” on page 106 of our Patches of Blue book.


Now you know the routine – lets start by picking your fabrics! You will need: 5 blue 10″ squares and 5 light 10″ squares. Remember the Rule of 5 when picking your fabrics.


Grab your Patches of Blue book, fabric, basic cutting supplies, and we will be ready to start! During the process I will introduce a few other tools you’ll need to make this a fun experience. In the book, we are cutting multiple baskets out of the same color, but in this case  we want each basket to be a different color and 10″ squares are perfect for that.

NOTE: Our sampler quilt will have applique branches and a bird coming out of the baskets – this applique will be done in a later month of our quilt along. Please be patient, I will have something special for you at that time.


Trim your square to 9-1/4″.


Cut it into 2 half square triangles.


From one triangle cut a 3/4″ bias strip for basket handle.


Take the larger triangle, cut in half again to make a quarter square triangle for basket . Notice how I lined up my 45 degree ruler with the edge of my triangle to insure that I cut it exactly.


From small triangle cut a 3-3/8″ square for the basket base.


Don’t forget to reward yourself with some kisses and cut enough fabrics for five baskets.


Next, from each 10″ light square, cut a rectangle and square for basket background. Fabric cutting requirements are in the book. I decided to use different color for each block background.


Pair up your backgrounds with your basket pieces in preparation for assembly. For one basket you need; 1 rectangle light, 1 square light, 1 square dark, 1 quarter square triangle and 1 bias strip for a handle.  Now you will need a 3/8″ (9mm) bias tape maker and and 5mm fusible bias tape, if you don’t have them, I have included a link for you.


Take a light and a dark square.


Place them right side together, draw a diagonal line with your pencil.


Sew on the line, press open, and trim.


Cut in half to create two half square triangles.


This is so much fun and so easy to make a basket this way!


Lay your pieces out to make sure that they are in the correct location.


Place right sides together. Notice the outside points are matching and the bottom points overlap. I pin it to keep everything together and now its time to stitch.


Next add the left side of the basket; place right sides together, match the outer points, and sew. Press and trim to complete. The size of the basket base should be 8-1/2″ x 4-1/2″.


Repeat above steps and in no time you will have all 5 basket bases done!


To make the handle I use a bias tape maker –  just click here or on the photo for a wonderful video on our YouTube channel that will guide you through the process. Once the handle is in position you can hand or machine applique it to the background.


Sew the top and bottom basket pieces together to create a block.


Press and trim your basket to 8-1/2″ x 8-1/2″.


In no time, you will have a basket full of baskets for Valentines!


We are not done yet, just like last time, I need you to do just a tiny bit more work as we will need these little finishing pieces in our quilt. Last time we did four-patches, this time I would like you to make some 1-1/2″ half square triangle units. Use a variety of scraps.


You will need 5″ squares of light and blue fabrics along with one of my personal favorite notions; 1-1/2″ triangle paper (LBQ-0523-X).


Place fabric right sides together with the light fabric and triangle paper on top.


Pin the paper in place and stitch on the dotted line. Make sure your stitches are a little closer together (reduce your stitch size).


Cut on a straight lines and in a short time you will have perfect triangle units. Don’t forget to trim the bunny ears and peel the paper off the back. I would like you to keep making some of these every month. We will need 348 of them for the border when we assemble the quilt.


You might even want to make some extras to share with your quilting sweethearts.


In the spirit of Valentines Day, I wanted to share our “Patches of Blue” Quilt-Along Sampler with you in the official colors of today. It’s a sneak peek of our new fabric collection called “Sweetheart”! XOXO Edyta



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Patches of Blue Quilt Along – Block 1 Frost

  • Edyta
  • Jan 14, 2018
  • 4 min read

Updated: Jan 4, 2023


Hello everyone, I’m so excited about doing this with you today, I even went out and got flowers for our sewing table!


Our first block will be “Frost” from the “Patches of Blue” book page 79. With this block we will warm up on a cold winter day to an accurate 1/4″ seam allowance, trimming, and pressing.


  1. Fabric Requirements:

  2. 6 Blue 10″ squares

  3. 6 Light 10″ squares

We are cutting for 2 Block 1s and 2 Block 2s on page 81 of the “Patches of Blue” book. You will need the book for the detailed cutting measurements.


  1. From blue fabrics cut:

  2. 12 large half square triangles

  3. 6 HST squares 3″ (I always cut squares a bit bigger than the required measurements for my HST units)

  4. 12 small squares


  1. From light fabrics cut:

  2. 24 small half square triangles

  3. 6 HST squares 3″ ( remember – I always cut squares a bit bigger than the required measurements for my HST units)

  4. 12 small squares

TIP: There are a few extra pieces that we have cut, I like to have a bit of extra variety in color for my block. Don’t worry, we will not waste the extras, they will be used in future blocks.


Lets put some thread into our sewing machine – I’m using Aurifil 2310 w50 for piecing this block, In case you are having trouble finding Aurifil, you can get it HERE.


We will start by placing light and a dark HST squares right sides together keeping the light fabric on the top. Draw a diagonal line through the square and then sew 1/4″ on both sides of the line. I really missed not having my favorite SewLine pencil for this task, it works much better than a standard pencil.


Cut on the pencil line, open the HST units, and press seam allowance toward the dark fabric.


Trim to the exact size, notice how I position the 45 degree line on my ruler through the middle of the HST unit. They are so cute – I can’t wait to move on the next step!


We have all of our pieces ready, lets lay out the block!


I start with the large triangles and all other blues. My goal is to watch the shades of color and keep the darkest blues in the middle, getting lighter blue toward the edge of the block.


Finish the layout out by adding the light pieces to the block. At this point I’m sure you’ll be happy to have those few extra pieces of fabric to add variety to your block.


If something doesn’t seem exactly exactly right with your colors, don’t feel like you are stuck, reach into your basket and grab a piece to cut what you would like to replace. I’d rather do this now then live with regrets later that I should have changed it. 🙂


Most times I like to take a break and walk away from my block at this point and do something else. When I come back to it I often notice something that I missed before and will make color changes.


Now it’s time to snap a picture with your phone for reference. It will come in handy with a scrappy block like this one.


We start by making Unit As, you will find detailed directions on page 81 of your “Patches of Blue” book.


As I sew pieces together, I put them back into the layout to double check the colors and position.


Once the Unit As are completed, we are going to trim the “bunny ears” and press.


Use your ruler to trim the Unit As, notice the 45 degree ruler line aligned right through the middle of the block.


Back to the design wall and we’re ready to assemble our center 4 patches.



Once your 4 patches are done, remember to press and trim to the exact size.


Back to the design wall and we’re read to sew 2 Block 1s and 2 Block 2s together.


Our block is completed – I’m so proud of you! Notice that you will have a few HST pieces left over, just set them to the side as we will use them in upcoming blocks.


Before folding my leftover fabric to put them back in my basket, I trim and clean all of the pieces.


If possible I cut 1-1/2″ squares from any of the small leftovers so I can make little 4 patches to be used in the finished quilt. Make them now and put them to the side, they will come in handy and have a nice variety of color if you make a few from the scraps of all the blocks.


I hope you enjoyed this block, take a little break and I can’t wait to see you again on Feb 15th for the next block. Don’t forget to share your pictures with me on Instagram and Facebook with the hashtag



Happy Quilting! Edyta

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