Exploding Pink & Purple Sunburts: Quilt block tutorial

This is a tutorial for the quilt block that I have sent out for a quilting bee: Buttercup's Pink and Purple Exploding Sunbursts. Here are directions for the packet that I have sent out:

What is in your quilting bee packet?

A bunch of strips of pink and purple fabric for the sunburst string piecing. I chose a variety for each person, and they are small and large, thick and thin, long and short. You are welcome to add whatever extra fabrics that you want from your own collection! The theme is pink and purple. Any pink or purple fabric works! It doesn't even have to be quilting cotton, since it is put on a cotton backing, it just needs to be washable. You can use as many or as few of the colors as you think are lovely.
Dark blue and green strips for the wonky borders. NOTE: there are 3 of these for most of you. You will only need two, in the contrasting color. I thought the third would be helpful, but then when I actually made the block I used up two. You could choose to have most of your border be the color you have more of, and only small strips of the alternating color. Or you could just send it back! If you mentioned that a second person in your household might be making a block, I sent you 4 strips, so a couple of the others have 2, but I didn't re-arrange all the bags.
Squares of pink cotton sheet. This is the backing for the string pieces. (This sheet was repurposed from a kids' play sheet. Any stains are probably chocolate.). NOTE: There are two of these. You don't have to make two blocks! Since all the other pieces have extra for flexibility, I decided to include an extra so if you make a mistake you are not stuck, or if you want to keep going and make a second block you can.
Simple directions. I like to have physical directions to look at while I'm working, so these are basic directions without pictures. This site has many more details and pictures.
(Not shown) A signature block (light purple or blue). This is for you to sign, and write an empowering message to Buttercup. It can be a verse, a message to her, a compliment, or just your signature. You can embroider or write in fabric-permanent marker. I will put the signature blocks together to make a block on the back of the quilt, so Buttercup can remember everyone and all the love in her quilt. You can also use your own fabric, any light blue or coordinating color; cut it into any multiple of 3 (3x6, 6x6, 3x9, 9x6, etc).

Example of quiliting bee packet

As described in the written instructions, the first step is to cut the strips into wedges. If you cut from approx 1" from one side at a diagonal to 1" from the other, you get two strip piecing wedges. If you have a narrow strip, you can just cut a little off one side to make it wedge-y.

The main thing to avoid in wonky or modern quilting is to have things be almost uniform. Then it looks like it is trying to be the same but not quite succeeding. That's why I included different width strips, and cut them in different ways so that you end up with different size strips. The short strips can be used at the edges, or they can make a little "floating" wedge at the top. You might not be able to use the short strips, and that's okay too.

Then you can make an arrangement of the approximate order you want to put your strips into. You can arrange them any way you want! You can put colors next to contrasting colors, you can put all the pinks in a row or all the dark colors in a row, you can take out all the dark colors, you can do whatever is pleasing to you. The goal of this quilt is a joyful explosion of color, so lots of different styles are fine. I didn't want too many color repeats, so I used only about half my wedges on each block.

The written directions explain how to lay down a wedge, put the next wedge on top of it right sides together, and sew along one side. Here is my peice a few wedges in.

Laying down another wedge on top of the previous one. Note that you don't have to follow the edge of the previous wedge! Put the new color (in this case, the pink) down on the path you want for the eventual shape of the wedge. In order to make the sunburst pointed to the bottom of the block, I had the pink point directly to the point of the backing instead of following the edge of the purple wedge.

Note the pins on the edge of the pink. In order to keep the lines deliberate, I need to place the wedge and pin it where I can see it, so I end up using pins more often than I would in traditional pieces (where you always sew along the edge of the cut peice).

It's also essential t o iron after e very single wedge.

This shows the detail of how the pink looks after sewing and ironing. See how it ended up cutting off the hatched purple higher on the block, so the pink is going right into the corner of the square? (It's also okay if your sunburst isn't so pointed!)

You could also use this technique to make a little triangle at the top of the sunburst with one of the small pieces of fabric.

Here I felt like too many of my wedges were too similar in size, so I am placing the next wedge to make the patterned purple noticeably more narrow. This new wedge doesn't reach all the way to the bottom of the square, but it will be okay, because I will cover the point with the next wedge of color.

Final wedge. Most of this will be trimmed off.

Showing the back of the sunburst strip piecing, halfway through.

Starting again at the middle, going towards the other side. The purple flowered piece is right sides together on the center piece, and now you can see the pins are on the other side.

You can see how the fabric is buckling as the sewing maching goes down the line. I needed the pins at the top and bottom of the strip to deliniate the line, but needed to take the second pin out before I got to it, in order to get a smooth line.