Serendipity Quilt Along Row 3

Today is the release of the third row of our Serendipity Quilt Along hosted by Fat Quarter Shop.

For this row, we are making these fun courthouse steps stars.  You will find all of the patterns released so far for this quilt along at this link.  It includes the downloads for the Serendipity cross stitch rows as well.  Did you know there were cross stitch rows? =)  This is a great link to bookmark so you can easily find the downloads as they are released (on the 1st & 15 of each month).  If you want just the link to this pattern, you will find it here.

Do keep in mind that this is a fundraising quilt along benefitting Make a Wish Central & South Texas and a $5 donation is encouraged for the use of each pattern.

And I also wanted to make sure you were aware that as new goals are reached for the fundraiser, new patterns are released that are available for download.  You will find all of the new patterns that have been released here.  They use the block patterns that have been released but in different projects.  There are three free patterns right now with more to come as milestones are passed.

For my Serendipity quilt, I am using Apricot & Ash fabrics for the prints and the white on white print from Sugarcreek for my background.

I opted to piece my stars using traditional piecing methods but I wanted to let you know that if you struggle with Courthouse Steps, Fat Quarter Shop has new Courthouse Steps foundation piecing paper.

Without careful piecing and pressing, Courthouse Steps blocks can quickly get pressed and/or sewn out of size.  If you struggle with these units, you might find the foundation paper to be pretty handy.  You can watch a video of how the paper works here.

I am so happy with my pretty little blocks!

And I think that white on white background fabric compliments the line so nicely!  It is hard to find now–I bought a bolt of it when the line came out because I just love it for backgrounds.

If you are piecing these using traditional methods…i.e not using foundation paper, you will want to make sure to sew and press accurately or your narrow strips will quickly become distorted and will become worse with each row added.  If you find that, as you are adding rows, your strips are either too long or too short, redo your sewing because your seam allowance is either to narrow or too wide.

And when pressing, make sure not to stretch things out of place by moving your iron around on your block.  Pressing quilt blocks is not as much of a side to side movement as when you iron clothing.

I hope that you are enjoying sewing these blocks!