{Classic Quilt Blocks} Birds In The Air - A Tutorial and Week 1 of the Sew Along Begins!

Classic Quilt Blocks have been sewn for centuries, are easy to recognise and are ever quilters favorite. Let's celebrate these gorgeous blocks and add them to our quilting projects!

It's tutorial week in my Birds In The Air Classic Quilt Blocks series, and it's also Week 1 of my sew along - so much to share with you I don't know where to start! I'm super excited about both and it's fantastic to know so many of you are joining in the sew along, cross fingers I make it fun and you love the quilt!

Let's start with Week 1 of the Scrappy Birds In The Air Sew Along:

I want the sew along to be relaxed and easy, so in Week 1 I'm giving you the first look at the quilt design plus all the tools you'll need to select your colour palette and fabrics.

In the PDF file there's a list of fabric requirements, a colouring sheet so you can get creative with colour, there's a step by step block tutorial so you can sew a test block or start sewing without me, and a cutting chart for six sizes of the Birds In The Air Block, in case you want to resize the quilt (the tutorial and cutting chart are also at the end of this blog post if you're only wanting to sew a Birds In The Air block).

Choosing and preparing your fabrics and sewing a test block is an important part of the quilt making process, and that's all you need to do this week. So, let's have a look at the quilt design:

Tada! Sixty-four Birds In The Air blocks arranging in a stunning formation! This design was inspired by a photo I saw in a book of antique quilts. I drafted it up years ago with the intention of recreating it someday, and the day finally came because it's perfect for a scrappy sew along. I have no details on the original design other than it was in a photo in this book.

For my quilt, I'm using the solid white and light grey backgrounds, and a mix of print fabrics in this colour palette. I'm trying not to think too hard about it - I pulled all my navy fabrics, cut a heap of mixed triangles and sewed!

I love this layout and it's going to make a stunning quilt - I hope you join me and sew along! To download the PDF file for Week 1, simply click the link below:

You'll find everything you need in this file to get started. Have fun!

Now onto the tutorial for the Birds In the Air block.

The following tutorial will yield a 9" (finished) block and all seam allowances are included. I prefer cutting the HST triangles slightly larger than required and trimming after they're sewn. This ensures the HST's are accurate and square and the pieced side of your block won't become wonky or distorted.

Let's go!

From your background fabric cut:

• 1 x 9 7/8" square cut diagonally to yield 2 triangles (A) - only one triangle is required.
• 2 x 4" squares cut diagonally to yield 4 triangles (C) - only three triangles are required.

From your print fabric cut:

• 2 x 3 7/8" squares cut diagonally to yield 4 triangles (B) - only three triangles are required.
• 2 x 4" squares cut diagonally to yield 4 triangles (D) - only three triangles are required.

• Sew a background (C) triangle to each of the three print (D) triangles, along the long sides and pressing seams towards the print triangles.
• Carefully trim each of the HST units to 3 1/2" square.

• Arrange the HST units and the three print (B) triangles into three rows, using the diagram above for correct block orientation.
• Sew together the units of Row 1, pressing seams towards the print fabrics.
• Sew together the units of Row 2, pressing seam away from the print fabric for nesting.

• Carefully matching all seams, sew the three rows together, pressing seams in the same direction to yield the pieced side of the block.

• Sew the background (A) triangle to the pieced unit, along the long side and pressing the seam open to complete your Birds In The Air block which should measure 9 1/2" square.

And that's it! One perfect block to add to your Scrappy Birds In The Air quilt or any of your other quilting projects.  It's such a pretty block and so quick to sew - it takes me ten minutes to sew each block for this quilt!

I've put together a Cutting Chart for six different sizes of this block, so you can choose the right size for you. They're all sewn together in the same manner, just the cutting requirements are different. Simply link on the link to download the chart or right click on the photo below and save it to your computer:

And that's it for this week. I hope you have fun preparing your scrappy quilt and you have the chance to sew a test block or two. And don't hesitate to contact me if you have a question - I'm here to help.

Next week I'll have a full list of the block's colourway required for the quilt, plus a checklist for cutting all the required pieces ready to sew. I've made a stack of blocks already, and I'll show you my progress on this quilt next Friday.

Thanks for sewing along with me!

Happy sewing :)