Birthday Block of the Month #7: Bonnie Hunter
We’re in the home stretch! For Month 7 of the Quilt Alliance’s Birthday Block of the Month, we are starting the final row of our quilt! I can’t believe there are only two months left of our birthday party. This month’s block builds off of many skill-building aspects of previous months, including techniques for precision.
Designed by the beloved Bonnie Hunter, this block is playfully called Birthday Girl. And it’s not just the Quilt Alliance’s birthday she’s celebrating — Bonnie turned 61 when she submitted this design for our project! Let’s dive into some tips and tricks to help you create this block as calmly and effortlessly as possible.
Meet Bonnie
Bonnie K. Hunter is passionate about quilt quilting, focusing mainly on scrap quilts with the simple feeling of “making do.” Dedicated to continuing the traditions of quilting, Bonnie enjoys meeting with quilters, challenging quilters to break the rules, thinking outside the box, and finding what brings them joy. Bonnie retired from the quilt teaching & lecture circuit in 2020 after the opening of her dream come true — Quiltville Inn, a big old 1884 victorian house turned retreat center in Southwestern Virginia. Catch up with Bonnie’s doings through her extensive website and almost daily blog.
You can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, or on her popular website.
One of the Quilt Alliance’s signature projects is the QSOS oral history project, an oral history project which anyone can participate in. Watch the video below to see Bonnie talk about her life and her quilts, and keep reading this blog post to learn a tip for how to document your own quilts!
Bonnie’s Top BOM Tips
Each month, our Birthday Block of the Month Designers will share their top tips for making the block they designed. Here are three great tips for making this block straight from Bonnie herself. As a reminder, while you’re reading through this post, Bonnie’s Birthday Girl block is made using three block units — a Pinwheel, a Chevron Unit, and a Corner Unit. Let’s take a quick look at those individual components.
Pinwheel unit
Chevron unit
Corner unit
Bonnie’s Tip 1: Trim, Trim Trim
As Bonnie says, “My number one tip when working with triangles — TRIM DOG EARS ALWAYS!” Don’t skip this step to save time. It will have a negative impact on the accuracy of your block. This tip will be most important when making the corner unit.
Bonnie’s Tip 2: Cut Accurately
Be sure to use ruler lines when cutting instead of mat lines. Quilting rulers are more accurate, and those small ⅛” lines may seem unimportant, but this block uses lots of eighth inch measurements.
Bonnie’s Tip 3: Don’t Sew On the Line in Chevron Units
As Bonnie said, “When making the Chevron Units: If you are drawing a line on a square that will fold over and become the corner triangles, NEVER sew on the line. The line is your fold line, not your stitching line. If you want your triangle to reach all the way to the edges of your base unit, stitch right next to the line – up against the line just barely into the seam allowance. That way your triangle can fold up on the fold line and not run short.”
Quilt Alliance BOM Tips
Each month, we share our best tips for making the Birthday Block of the Month as well. These tips come to you from our Birthday Block of the Month host, Quilt Alliance co-president Laura Hopper!
Sew Slow!
When making the Chevron Units, your seam needs to be incredibly close to your guideline. To achieve this without sewing directly on the line, slow down while you sew. I enjoy slow sewing — I keep my machine at half speed at all times. But even I slowed down even more when making the Chevron Units to try and focus on accuracy.
Nest Every Seam Possible
We’ve covered nesting seams in several previous blog posts, so by now you must be a pro! People often ask me how my piecing is so precise. My best tip is to nest seams! Once I learned to do this, my piecing improved noticeably and I never went back. It is popular nowadays to press seams open. However, doing that does not allow seams to nest and reduces accuracy. Press to the side, ensure that your seams alternate in pressing directions before sewing together, and nest in place. You’ll love your results.
Don’t Get Tripped Up By The Corner Units
Look at the picture above. When you get to this step in the PDF, you may think you’ve cut something wrong. I know I did! I double-checked the pattern several times! Typically, when piecing, the two pieces being sewn together are usually the same size.
However, when making the Corner Unit, you’ll sew two wing triangles onto a half square triangle (one is shown above), and the wing triangle will be longer. That’s because those long wing triangles are helping to create a seam allowance that will allow you to finish the Corner Unit! Take a look below, left.
Do you see where the two wing triangles come together in the center? That’s a quarter inch between the edge and the start of the half square triangle! It allows you to make sure the half square triangle point lines up exactly with the next triangle sewn to the Corner Unit. Check that out below, right.
Know Where To Aim
We’ve talked about this tip before, too. It’s almost like this block is bringing together so many skills built in previous months!
To get the perfect point shown in the Corner Unit above or in other areas of this block, knowing where to aim your seam is crucial. In the image above, you can see where three seams come together. Before sewing the last long seam, there was an X intersection. I aimed for the center of the X to create the long seam shown in the image above, and the result was a perfect point!
See You in November for Month Eight!
Thank you so much to everyone who has participated in the Quilt Alliance’s Birthday Block of the Month so far! Our designer for next month, the eighth block we’re making together, is the innovative Carole Lyles Shaw!
Be sure to tag @quiltalliance and @quiltville_bonnie on Instagram with your block photos this month, and use the hashtag #QuiltAllianceBOM. And leave any questions about this month’s block in the comments below!