Venus at Dusk- Block Five of `Dreamcatcher Round the Year’ Block of the Month Quilt

Goddess on the mountain top
Burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name…

( Lyrics from a popular song from the 70s, when I was a teenager!)

I find the folded star so very pretty and you see it everywhere these days! The reason that I could never get around to making it is that … as much as I may hate to admit it… I am a fabric miser! Therefore, I designed this paper pieced block, inspired by the folded star and named it Evening Star. There is already a quilt block with that name, so I thought of calling it `Morning Star’, but in Hindu mythology the Morning Star is the North Star, not to forget that this quilt is called “Dusk’!

I also wanted to dedicate this October Star, Venus, to my husband and son, whose birthdays fall this month. And then, Indian scientists decided it for me by sending a mission to Mars; if  men now have a place to head to, we women need our very own Venus!

So…introducing Venus, Block 5 of the Block of the Month quilt ” Dreamcatcher Round the Year”, designed in two colourways, Dusk and Rainbow. I used Quilt Assistant free software to design this block. This colour design shows the ‘Dusk’ Colourway in four shades of the main colour (blue here) and four shades ranging from yellow to deep orange in the contrast colour. My contrast colours are not symmetrical, because I liked the idea of a twinkling star, please make necessary adjustments in the fabric requirement if you want a `steadier’ star.

Fabric Requirement – Venus at Dusk

Instructions

Print all templates in portrait mode at actual size. Also print the first two pages of the Instructions file and keep at hand. If you want to refer to the step by step piecing and assembly instructions, print the whole file! The links are at the end of this post.

Number and label each fabric colour. You can use the master template given below for trying out colour combinations.

I like to cut out all the pieces of one colour and pin them to the respective templates before I move to the next colour fabric. This helps me avoid a lot of confusion and heartburn later!

I suggest you piece the 8 templates A to H like log cabins. Align the straight edge of the strip with the printed seam line at each stage. It saves time if you work on all the templates at the same time. Complete the piecing at each step, trim the seams and press, before moving to the next step.

For more tips on paper piecing the blocks of this quilt, refer to this blogpost!

Assembly

Join the 8 wedges A to H to respective background pieces using the colour design and the Master template on Page 1 as a guide. Join in pairs to make the ¼ squares. Assemble these to make up the full block.

Here is the Master template – this is a mirror image of the colour design and shows the block from the printed paper side.

Step by Step Piecing and Assembly Instructions

Anuradha Bahuguna of anumrinal.wordpress.com was sweet enough to test the block for me! All these pictures were taken by her. Would you believe this was her first attempt at paper piecing?

Like I said, the block templates A to H are pieced like individual log cabins, beginning from the centre ( yellow to oranges here).

1.I would recommend you sort out all the pieces template-wise and pin them to the far end of your template ( near the piece # 10-11) in the order of stitching – the longest piece at the bottom of the pile and the shortest on top.

For convenience, I am giving the piece number, size of the piece and fabric number here.

2. So we start with the 1.5″x2.75″ piece and pin it on the unprinted side of A1. The wrong side of the fabric should touch the paper at all times.

Note that the fabric extends at least ¼” beyond both seam lines, adjoining A2 as well as A3. Align the long edge of the fabric to the seam to be stitched – in this case between A1 and A2. Do this for all pieces to come.
(Note –
In the picture below, one can afford to move the fabric piece a bit upward, toward A3, so that the corner between A1 and A2-A3 is better covered.)

What I am going to show you now is incorrect, because the ¼” margin is not available toward A2.

Now place the 3″ x1.25″ fabric #3 on the just pinned piece, right sides together, and long edges aligned at seam A1-A2.

Anuradha has pinned it on the seam allowance to check that fabric for area A2 completely covers it when opened. In the next picture she shows us how it looks from the flip side.

That looks good.

Set the sewing machine to a stitch length between 1 and 1.5 so that it is easy to tear away the paper. Sew on the seam line A1-A2, extending the stitching line about ¼” on to A3.

Similarly stitch the first two pieces on all the templates, before heading to your ironing table and pressing the seams to set them. Then trim the seams to ¼” and open the piece #2 on all templates.

3. Pin piece#3,
which is fabric#3 and 3.5″ long, right side down, aligning the long edge to ¼” beyond the printed seam line between A1 –A2 and A3, the way you would in a log cabin. Do this for all the templates and then do the stitching of piece #3 to pieces #1 and #2.

Press seam to set. Fold away the paper template after stitching the seam and trim the seam to ¼” before pressing open piece #3.

This is how your templates should look after this stage…

4. Similarly attach pieces 4 and 5…

5. Sew pieces # 6 and 7 to each of the templates.

Aren’t they pretty?

6. Here comes Piece#8. It will be followed by piece #9.

…the final blue pieces# 8 and 9 attached!

7. Turn of the golds! Anuradha was a bit confused here, so she coloured the pieces 9 and 10 with pencils! Remember – the master template is a mirror inage?

Not for long though! She attached the yellow to orange pieces at Areas # 10 and 11.

7. Here are her eight wedges, that will make up the 15″ circle, all pieced!

The pattern suggests that you join each of these eight large pieced wedges to a corresponding background piece.

While I suggest a diagonal kind of dark/ bright background, Anuradha wanted to experiment with other `looks’. Time then, for some more confusion, while Anuradha tried out various settings for her circle! This..hmmm…I quite like this..

…this(which is also delicious)…

…and this! I am not so sure about this one…

Anuradha, I think, liked this! She joined the wedges to the backgrounds…

but changed her mind! She joined these wedges into pairs to make four squares. The squares were joined ( like a four patch) to make up the final block. Here it is from the wrong side, withe paper removed!

Anuradha does not care much for the centre of her block from the back. It refuses to lie flat.

I  promised to show her how to make those seams meet in a swirl and lie perfectly flat. For that she needs firstly to ensure that her seams are pressed in one  direction. I tried looking for a good tutorial that teaches you how to do it , in vain. It is very similar to the what you would do in a pinwheel block.  She has not got back to me on this, so perhaps she has found a solution?

When I make my block, I will share with you (and Anuradha)  how to make the wrong side of your block look like this.

The front is perfect, all points matched, just so. Here it is, Anuradha’s gorgeous Venus Block, flipped over, from the right side.

Now is that not absolutely gorgeous?

Anuradha’s block is ready, waiting to see yours ! Meanwhile, the Venus song is stuck in my head.

She’s got it 
Yeah, baby, she’s got it
I’m your Venus, I’m your fire
At your desire
Well, I’m your Venus, I’m your fire
At your desire

(Do go listen to the full song, it is `awesome’!)

Before I log off, here is a look at the Rainbow Venus, in its original avatar.

And finally the Instructions and templates are available on my online store Madspatch in pdf format. Remember, print at actual size! You need  Adobe Reader to be able to read these files, Adobe Reader is downloadable for free.

BUY PATTERN HERE

Instructions file – Venus, Block 5 of the Dreamcatcher Round the Year Quilt. The step by step piecing instructions and pics are included in this file, page 3 onwards. If you do not want them, print only the first 2 pages.

Paper Piecing Templates File – Venus, Block 5 of the Dreamcatcher Round the Year Quilt

Please note that the downloadable patterns and instruction files for the Dreamcatcher Round the Year quilt blocks are being migrated to my store MadsPatch and will not be available for download for free from 15th November 2020 onwards.