Hello... and welcome to my quilty world!!! We are officially one week away from the kick off date for the BEE HAPPY SEW ALONG We have just a few more "Jump Start" tutorials to Bee Prepared! Today is Churn Dash Day:) Last week I showed you how to make the bee and the cherries... this week is the heart and the daisy:) Grab your appliqué pieces and backgrounds. You will be using the D-27 heart D-26 daisy and the D-1 circle This part goes so much faster when all of your pieces are cut and ready to go:) Ya'll know the steps by now... trace onto the interfacing and sew! The heart has a cleavage that will need one clip only... right to the sewing line but not past it:) The daisy has 5 super deep inner curves. Clip 3 times... to the sewing line but not past it. This daisy looks a little scary to turn... but don't worry! It turns out super cute even though it's a little fussy. It takes a few extra minutes but is totally worth it! *YOU ARE THE BOSS OF YOUR OWN QUILT!* You can always choose to make a different flower... or a circle flower instead... or use one of the leaf templates and make the petals separately if you really want to. There are no quilt police in this sew along LOL Cut the X in the back of the circle and the heart for turning... but cut the daisy just like this. Here we go!!! Now just turn ONE petal at a time like this... Use the tool to shape the curve on the petal top and give it a little press on the end with just the tip of your iron. Do the same with the second petal.. Until all five are turned and pressed like this. See those little triangles of interfacing? Don't trim them off... you need them to use for "handles" when turning the rest of the daisy:) Turn your daisy around to the back and take it to your ironing board. Grab each of the triangles (one at a time) and pull it over to the back like this. Again...just use the tip of your iron and press right on top of that triangle of interfacing. The interfacing will stay into place when pressed. See? It's totally do-able even though were just a little scared:) Now you have a cute daisy all ready to appliqué:) Don't worry that some of the interfacing shows on the inside curves... the flower center will cover that. Press the background twice like this for centering. Pin the daisy and the heart and appliqué! (I like to do my embroidery on the daisy center BEFORE I appliqué) Don't forget that you will need to trim them down to 4 1/2" square after appliqué is complete:) Grab the rest of the pieces and lets make the daisy Churn Dash Block! These 4 squares will be the half square triangles in the corners... They are cut the same size. Of course you make them exactly the same way as you made the pinwheel blocks last week. Just follow the exact same steps until you have 4 - 2 1/2" half square triangles. Sew the two strips together... And finish up your block! It should measure 8 1/2" square at this point. Do the same for the Heart Churn Dash... The Cherry Churn Dash... And the Bee Churn Dash. YaY! Now you can add two pinwheels to each of the four blocks. Add these blocks to your "Fun and Done" pile! Let's move on to the four Hexi Flower Blocks in the quilt. Grab your fabrics... And your interfacing. Trace the D-33 hexie flower and the D-10 hexie Sew Simple Shapes. Sew and trim. There are 6 cleavage areas on each flower so make one clip in each:) Cut the "X" and shape after turning. Give them a quick press. Cute and easy peasy!!! Press your background squares twice for centering the flowers. It doesn't matter which way your flower is turned... as long as all four turned the same way. Place the center on each flower... they should measure about 1" in like this. Now its time for appliqué!!! (embroidery is optional and again... I like to do this step first) YaY!!! I used the 6 1/2" Cute Cuts Trim-It Ruler to trim them down to 6 1/2" square. Use the lines on the ruler for centering:) ***NOTE for LATER*** I also used this ruler to trim up the Hen Block:) These 5 are the only 6 1/2" blocks in the quilt. *NOTE for LATER* These two blocks are trimmed down to 8 1/2"... And I used the 12 1/2" Trim-It for this one. I've already shown you this photo several times now... all of the blocks in the quilt that are 4 1/2" after trimming. ***IDEA*** I'm showing you this photo again because ALL of these blocks also fit inside the churn dash and I think just making a quilt of Churn Dash blocks with all different centers would be SUPER CUTE!!! A while back I showed you how to make my Mama's Flower Garden Quilt with the same shapes that we just made the Hexie Flower Blocks. CLICK HERE to see the tutorial:) If you haven't downloaded the Bee Happy Sew Along Schedule now is the time... because we start next week. Yippee!!! xx Lori