Hello and welcome to all our lovely followers of the Moda BOM quilt.

Sorry this post is a little late, but hopefully it may have some hints and tips for those of you that haven’t yet cut into your stash.

I’ll start by saying that I am no block girl myself. I came into quilting from bag making and have done quite a few quilts but none of them I would say are traditional blocks which use some of the basic techniques, so I thought it would be a great test for me to try and figure out the patterns in order to try and help the ones of us that are a bit unsure of flying geese and half square triangles (HST) etc.

The one thing I found difficult was knowing if my measurements were correct as the block was building up. As it turned out I had made an error on my second stage of the block and it threw the whole block out. So a bit of seam ripping later and I think this turned out to be an almost perfect block (apart from 1 point which I’m going to re-do).

First up, cutting. As the centre of this block is made up of quite small pieces, I would definitely recommend pressing and starching your red and white fabrics. Our favourite partner in crime for this job is Flatter, I just love the smell and the way it holds the fabric but obviously you can use whatever you have to make sure your fabric is going to be as crisp as possible to help hold its shape.

The only tricky part I found in the cutting was G the 19 1/4″ square into 4. Even though I have a 24″ ruler it wouldn’t reach point to point. I placed the square on the mat so it fell on the cutting line from corner to corner and then folded the the block in half like so:

Making cutting it in half easier, I placed my ruler on that diagonal line and made my first cut. I then unfolded the triangles swirled them round so they were in this same position (placing one on top of the other) and making just one more cut along that same diagonal line.

Another tip here would be to label all you pieces once they are cut.

Piecing

All the seams are sewn at a 1/4″ so this will not be repeated through the post.

Take block A and four B. Start by folding A in half to give you a centre line (folding straight edge to edge). Now put one B so it is point is lined up with this centre fold and the long edge runs parallel to the top of the square, sew along this seam.

Press the stitches then fold back and press. I would recommend folding the seam towards B.

Repeat with the opposite side,

and then the remaining two sides, pressing as you go. You can now trim the edges.

The next row we are going to start on the flying geese, (this is where I went majorly wrong the first time around, not thinking straight).

Take a C and two B’s. Lay triangle C down as show in the picture and lay a B on top matching the long edge to the side of C. Sew along this edge press. You will have a slight overhang at the top point, don’t worry that is correct.

Repeat with second red B to give you your flying geese.

Repeat this step with your remaining 3 C blocks and 6 B’s.

Take 4 D’s and the last 4 B’s. These will make up the four corner HST pieces. Place B on top of D matching all side perfectly and sew down the long edge. Press towards B. Repeat with last 3.

All your red and white pieces should now look like this ready to sew together:

Take two of the geese and place on opposite sides of your main block and sew in place. Press seams.

Take the four HST and sew two to each end of the other two geese, making sure you position them correctly.

Now sew these strips to either side of your block and your centre block is now done, and can be trimmed.

Moving onto Seafoam and take one E and place it along the edge of your block, centring in the same way we did with the very first piece. Add the opposite piece and then the last two side, pressing as you go. Your block will now look like this:

We’re on the home straight now and the blocks are getting much bigger.

Take one G and two F’s and again you are making a flying geese in exactly the same way as with C & B.

I wanted my seams to all lay the same way so I attached the right side F to G first.

Repeat this step 3 more times.

Attach a H block to either end of two of these geese.

Now in exactly the same way with the red and white centre block, sew the two of your flying geese (with now H blocks) to opposite sides of your main block and press. Then add your last two rows (flying geese with H blocks on the ends). Matching the seams as you go to give you nice points in the corners.

And you’re done:

Hope you all have an easier time than I did first time around, but it was a great learning process and I hope I can help answer any questions you have. If I’ve not covered anything in the post just give us a shout, here or on any of our social media outlets!