Triple Play: 3 NEW Jacob's Ladder Quilts with Jenny Doan of Missouri Star

Jenny Doan:
Hi, everybody. It's Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company, and it is triple play day, and we are so excited to be here today. I'm here with Natalie and Misty, and we have three great ideas for you all based on the Jacob's Ladder block. So join us today as we show you how to make those.

Jenny Doan:
So today we're going to start with Natalie's quilt, and let's take a look at that. Natalie, this is gorgeous.

Misty Doan:
So happy.

Natalie Earnheart:
I called this one Jacob's Ladder sky box, because I thought these looked like boxes and it's very cool.

Misty Doan:
It's really fun.

Jenny Doan:
Jacob's Ladder is the most versatile pattern ever. There's so many ways to set it and so many different things to do.

Natalie Earnheart:
I had a lot of fun making this quilt.

Misty Doan:
It's really fun.

Natalie Earnheart:
The fabric line is very cool too. It's called Creativity Glows and it's by Creativity Shell and Creativity Shell is one of those companies that does great things for kids.

Misty Doan:
Oh, I love that.

Natalie Earnheart:
So they teach children to sew and do a variety of things for kids that have anxiety or depression or in the juvenile system.

Jenny Doan:
Oh, that's so cool.

Natalie Earnheart:
They do all kinds of things, and so in making this line, this collection, she wants to encourage people to teach young people to sew and particularly make things for children. So I thought adding this bright pop of yellow, it's just such a fun, bright line that-

Misty Doan:
It is.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's great for kids.

Jenny Doan:
What a great idea to do that, that's our future generation and they don't even have home EC or anything like that in the schools, and we all know how's healing quilting is and if we start with those children, as they're younger, that's going to help them [inaudible 00:01:44].

Natalie Earnheart:
That's one of their main things. They're convinced and believe that poor mental health in young people hinders their growth and gives them such a tough time as they're getting older. So they want to try and support and help children, which I think is a great cause.

Misty Doan:
Oh, absolutely.

Natalie Earnheart:
There's nothing better.

Jenny Doan:
Nothing better, yeah. So what do you need to make this?

Natalie Earnheart:
All right. So to make my quilt, I used one package of 10 inch squares. I used Creativity Glows by Creativity Shell for Moda. You're going to need three and a half yards of accent fabric and that also includes your inner border. For your outer border, you're going to need one and a quarter yards, and that is this cool star fabric. For your backing, you'll need five and a quarter yards, unless you use a 108, and then you need two and three fourth yards.

Jenny Doan:
Yeah, but this is so cool.

Misty Doan:
So happy.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's just fun. It's like sketchy and doodly and all kinds of cute things.

Misty Doan:
With those cute little clamshells. I love it.

Jenny Doan:
All right. So let's get on to making this quilt.

Natalie Earnheart:
Okay. So this quilt is very fun and easy to make. You will need to cut a lot of 10 inch squares out of your accent fabric. So we'll start by doing that. Let's see. Because I don't think this fabric comes in a precut, but it's not too difficult to cut a few 10 inch ... you just start with 10 inch strips and then cut them down. You get four from a strip. There we go. Okay. So I'm going to just go four to 14. The cool thing about the Jacob's Ladder quilts is that they're just all half square triangles and four patches.

Jenny Doan:
They are. It's very common blocks.

Misty Doan:
There's not a lot of variation there.

Jenny Doan:
It's very common blocks and it's very easy to make these and put these together, but so many different options.

Misty Doan:
That's what I was going to say. Depending on how you set it, it's so different. I love it.

Natalie Earnheart:
So I decided to do mine completely scrappy. So all of the things that I made, whether I made the four patches or the half square triangles, I just mixed them all up when I put my blocks together. Okay. Do we have a pencil?

Jenny Doan:
I don't know. Let me iron these for you so they're nice and flat.

Natalie Earnheart:
Well, I just want to draw the line, so I guess ... here we go.

Misty Doan:
That'll work. Yep.

Jenny Doan:
Even a real pencil.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yes.

Jenny Doan:
There we go.

Natalie Earnheart:
All right. So to make eight half square triangles, we're going to draw the line from corner to corner. Oh, can you grab-

Jenny Doan:
[inaudible 00:04:23]. Sure.

Natalie Earnheart:
The precut. I need a print to work with. Because we are going to sew these together right sides together. We're going to sew on either side of both diagonal lines.

Jenny Doan:
You want me to just grab one?

Natalie Earnheart:
Yep.

Jenny Doan:
Any one?

Natalie Earnheart:
Any one you want.

Jenny Doan:
Any one I want? There's so many fun ones.

Misty Doan:
How can you choose?

Jenny Doan:
Oh, right out of the middle.

Natalie Earnheart:
Perfect. All right. So with our drawing on the outside, that makes this the wrong side of the fabric. So you'll put your two right sides together. Misty, if you'll stitch on either side of those lines, this is how we're making all of our half square triangles for the whole quilt.

Misty Doan:
All right.

Jenny Doan:
Actually, this is going to work for all of us.

Natalie Earnheart:
It works well for you. Misty's is slightly different

Misty Doan:
It's the same idea. I just do half of this.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yeah, because you have some different things going on design wise.

Misty Doan:
Yep.

Jenny Doan:
I just love the reason behind this fabric. I just love that.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's very cool. It's very cool. There is a website, creativityshell.org, if you want to go check it out and see if you can help out in any way or be a part of that. That's totally fine and up to you. One more [inaudible 00:05:46].

Misty Doan:
One more.

Misty Doan:
Here we go.

Natalie Earnheart:
All right. So now the fun part and I keep remembering, Mom, one time you told me not to cut on the lines, to cut where there's no lines first. So I keep remembering to do that and I think it's very smart. So we're going to cut straight down the middle horizontally and vertically, and then if things slide at all, you have those lines.

Jenny Doan:
You have the lines, so we start by cutting where there's no lines horizontally and vertically, and then we can just lay the ruler on the line. So even if the pieces get moved, we have that line.

Natalie Earnheart:
You don't have to be super precise because we're going to be squaring these down to four and a half. But there's also not a ton of room.

Jenny Doan:
Do you want me to iron them open?

Natalie Earnheart:
Yeah, just one or two and then we'll square them. I have a big pile of half square triangles already made.

Jenny Doan:
There's one for you to start with, and let me just move these over here so you can start. Here's our little squaring tool right here, if that's what you're looking for.

Natalie Earnheart:
So because we have in our block, let me show you the block right here. This is what we're making. So this block has six half square triangles and three four patches. So you need to divide your layer cake before you start, I forgot to tell you. You'll need to pull out 23 sets of prints, a print plus a solid for your half square triangles and 12 for your four patches. So that's how you'll divide it up ahead of time. It doesn't matter which ones you pick, just mix them all up. Then we're going to pull from every color way to do our little block.

Misty Doan:
I love it. So scrappy.

Natalie Earnheart:
So let's go ahead and square this and you can square them using whatever tool you're comfortable with. It really is pretty close on these.

Jenny Doan:
It's very close, yeah.

Natalie Earnheart:
But it's good to make sure everything is precise because then you have a much more pleasant time putting your blocks together. Got one more little edge here.

Jenny Doan:
You really do, you guys. I didn't learn to square for years and it's a good idea to learn that, to figure it out.

Natalie Earnheart:
Okay. So now we'll make our four patches and the four patches are another fun, little trick that mom just taught me. I think we learned it the last time we filmed triple play and I was very excited about it. So we're going to draw a line right down the middle.

Jenny Doan:
I don't know why my brain works that way, but it comes up with shortcuts.

Natalie Earnheart:
I think it's pretty cool.

Misty Doan:
It's amazing. It really is.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yeah. So then we're going to stack these up and you're going to sew on either side of the line that goes down the middle and then also these two sides.

Misty Doan:
All right.

Jenny Doan:
This is to make four patches.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yep. One you've got this, you've got all your half four triangles ready to go.

Jenny Doan:
Honestly, when you square them up, I just kept a four and a half inch ruler handy because even the four patches can get a little wonky.

Natalie Earnheart:
They can, yeah. It's good to check them.

Jenny Doan:
It's good to just lay it on there and make sure that they're doing well. Of course, in our effort to design these, you and I both, we did half and half to start with, I think. So we have loads of leftover four patches and half square triangles from our-

Natalie Earnheart:
I just got excited and kept making them.

Misty Doan:
Kept making them.

Natalie Earnheart:
All right. So we are going to cut two and a half, which should roughly be the middle right here from the edge of your strip set. Then we can kind of just keep going because we've got seams and ...

Jenny Doan:
Yeah. They're already centered together.

Natalie Earnheart:
All kinds of things to help us line up. So then you can ...

Jenny Doan:
Do you want me to press them open before you cut or do you cut before you press?

Natalie Earnheart:
I cut before I pressed.

Jenny Doan:
Okay. I do too.

Natalie Earnheart:
Okay. I wasn't sure what you normally do. So I would just kind of turn them and stack them because they're all going to end up the same size.

Jenny Doan:
You want to scrap these up as well. So when you get your pieces cut, you just set them over here until you've got a few cut and then you can start putting them together.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yes. So I just did all mine.

Jenny Doan:
Wait, before you cut, I just want to show them that because of this seam right here, they're already all stitched together. They're ready to go.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yes.

Jenny Doan:
So I thought somebody might miss that. So then she's just got them lined up here and we're going to cut two and a half.

Natalie Earnheart:
We're going to cut two and a half inch segments.

Jenny Doan:
It's always so interesting for me to watch you guys cut, because I cut from the other direction. It's probably weird for you guys to watch me cut too

Natalie Earnheart:
A little bit. It can be.

Jenny Doan:
I would say you're probably used to it by now.

Misty Doan:
I was going to say, I'm really used to it, but funny enough, when I watch you do it, I try to do it your way and it's difficult.

Natalie Earnheart:
Doesn't work, does it?

Misty Doan:
Doesn't work for me.

Natalie Earnheart:
All right. So then I would go ahead and press all of these open, and what I did is I just ... I kind of kept mine in colorways so that I could make sure that I used an even amount of colors and not end up with a pile of white background-

Misty Doan:
Left at the end.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yeah. Then we would just put them back together, but we're going to do opposite colors so that they end up looking more like these ones that I've already got done.

Misty Doan:
Awesome.

Natalie Earnheart:
All right. Okay. Then let's go to putting this block together. So you'll notice that all of the yellow blocks are going in the same direction.

Jenny Doan:
Oh, that's a good call.

Natalie Earnheart:
So that will help put those together, and then the half square triangles, they create the box. So you just put your ... this one is color out, this one is yellow in. I don't know if there's a mantra or not, but-

Jenny Doan:
Oh, man. I repeat those things over and over again.

Natalie Earnheart:
I just laid it out and kept looking at it, trying to make sure I had it right.

Misty Doan:
So cute.

Jenny Doan:
Look how cool that is.

Natalie Earnheart:
It just creates that little box. Let's see. I think I have a red one maybe. Nope.

Jenny Doan:
Do that green.

Natalie Earnheart:
We'll go green. Okay. All right.

Misty Doan:
Cute.

Natalie Earnheart:
That is the block. So it takes a minute to get your half square triangles made and your four patches made, but then assembling the blocks is really easy because everything is all the same size.

Jenny Doan:
It basically becomes a nine patch, because it's three rows of three and you just sew them together.

Natalie Earnheart:
That is true. So do we want to sew?

Jenny Doan:
Let's do it. All right. Let's keep Misty busy over there.

Misty Doan:
All right.

Natalie Earnheart:
She was bored.

Misty Doan:
You could tell.

Jenny Doan:
I heard it.

Natalie Earnheart:
She said so. Okay.

Jenny Doan:
All right.

Natalie Earnheart:
All right. Then I'm going to give you this next one and we can just chain piece them.

Jenny Doan:
I love putting a block together this way.

Misty Doan:
I do too.

Jenny Doan:
It keeps everything in order and just sails along. There isn't really anything to line up or match up on these because-

Natalie Earnheart:
Not too much.

Jenny Doan:
Except for the three big seams, because four patches and half square triangles are ... there's no seams to match up.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yep.

Misty Doan:
There we go. Now we'll add that top one.

Natalie Earnheart:
So that one goes there.

Misty Doan:
Got it. Oops.

Jenny Doan:
Perfect. Years ago I made a Jacob's Ladder and it was made with red and white because I wanted to test out-

Natalie Earnheart:
The red fabric.

Jenny Doan:
The red fabric and it was Moda red and I threw it in the washing machine on hot and I threw it in the dryer and I didn't have any trouble at all, but you can have trouble. So if you do a two color one, make sure you throw color catchers in there and that sort of thing. But I have a Jacob and Misty has a Jacob. He needs all the ladders.

Misty Doan:
All the Jacob's Ladders.

Natalie Earnheart:
You both have the same Jacob.

Misty Doan:
That's okay.

Jenny Doan:
We do. We share him.

Misty Doan:
We do share him. There we go. Now we'll just open these up and just sew them together.

Jenny Doan:
He's getting-

Natalie Earnheart:
I always did ... the first one, I didn't worry too much, but you want to nest your seams. Then the second one, I would flip it over because the middle is the part that joins on both sides. So that would be the one that I would say, "Oh, if this one went down," then I flip the other one back up so that my seam's nested on both sides.

Misty Doan:
That's a great tip.

Jenny Doan:
That's a great tip because I'm always wondering how they're going under there. Just flipping that over works.

Natalie Earnheart:
I mean, honestly you could press in between every seam, but I don't. It's faster to just stay at the machine.

Misty Doan:
Especially if you chain piece them like this.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yeah, and then just press the block flat at the end and they come out just as nice, I think.

Misty Doan:
I agree. I haven't had any trouble. So then you just flip this one back to make sure they're going the same?

Natalie Earnheart:
Yep, exactly.

Jenny Doan:
Great idea.

Natalie Earnheart:
So that way you can see really easily right there whether that one went forward-

Jenny Doan:
That is brilliant. It's interesting how those small little things.

Natalie Earnheart:
Just a little trick.

Jenny Doan:
I'm going to remember that tip. Thank you for that tip, Natalie.

Misty Doan:
It's a great one. Oops. If I can get the bottom one to go where I want it, then we are good to go.

Jenny Doan:
They can be kind of finicky at times, but ...

Misty Doan:
Yeah. That's all right. I think I've got it now.

Jenny Doan:
That's really only your matching are those two little center seams.

Misty Doan:
Yep.

Natalie Earnheart:
That's right.

Jenny Doan:
You can make that behave.

Misty Doan:
That is exactly right. There we go. All done.

Natalie Earnheart:
That's it. That's the block. Go ahead and press it.

Jenny Doan:
Let me iron it.

Natalie Earnheart:
Press it real quick and then I'll talk about the layout.

Misty Doan:
So fun.

Jenny Doan:
Oh, just glorious. I did a grand job on this.

Natalie Earnheart:
Really lovely.

Jenny Doan:
Celebrate every block, I say.

Misty Doan:
I like it.

Natalie Earnheart:
All right. So this one ... so there's actually several different ways that you can lay it out because it has that diagonal line so it kind of is a, in my head, the half square triangle thing. I kind of think of everything that has a diagonal line as a half square triangle, which I know isn't accurate, but it gives me a lot of play and ideas for layouts. So this one, I ended up kind of doing a Chevron design. So these blocks fit in this way, one with the line going that direction and then we flip them, it's just a Chevron pattern and every row is the same. So if you look at them, this one faces the same direction all the way down, and then it creates that really cool Chevron design.

Jenny Doan:
So that is a really cool look.

Natalie Earnheart:
There's other ways. If you flipped them, you could make big Xs with a little box in the middle and I think that's kind of cool. It's got a five by six layout. So one, two, three, four, five by one, two, three, four, five, six.

Jenny Doan:
Perfect.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's a great size for a twin bed or a picnic.

Jenny Doan:
Little two and a half inch border.

Natalie Earnheart:
Yes. A little two and a half inch border, and then a five inch on the outside edge. I quilted it with loops and stars or stars and loops. You'll find it.

Jenny Doan:
Show us the back.

Natalie Earnheart:
This is this glorious backing.

Misty Doan:
I just love that.

Jenny Doan:
I love the clam shell back.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's just so pretty.

Jenny Doan:
It's really cute.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's a great fabric for that.

Misty Doan:
Oh, it's so happy.

Jenny Doan:
That is awesome.

Misty Doan:
That's so great, Nat.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's 73 by 85.

Jenny Doan:
Perfect.

Misty Doan:
Awesome.

Natalie Earnheart:
So yeah, a really good size and I think it's fun. It's a great fabric. A great cause. Kids are great.

Misty Doan:
You can't beat it.

Jenny Doan:
It's my turn.

Natalie Earnheart:
So many great things, so I'm excited to see what you've got for us, Mom.

Jenny Doan:
Awesome. Well, let's get into it. So this is my quilt right here and even though I use the same pieces as Natalie did to make her quilt, it looks strikingly different. It's very fun.

Misty Doan:
It's so pretty. I love it.

Jenny Doan:
I love it too.

Natalie Earnheart:
I love this fabric.

Jenny Doan:
I do too. Well, it's Jen Kingwell and so I can hardly wait to show you how to do it. So to make my quilt, what you're going to need is one layer cake of 10 inch fabrics, 42 squares. Jen Kingwell always does super, super scrappy stuff and it's just really, really fun. So you're going to need one packet of 10 inch squares of print and one of solid and I just used the black. Then you're also going to need about three quarter yard for this inner border right here and you're going to want those to match. Then your outer border, which is this one right here, which I just love how eclectic her prints are.

Misty Doan:
It's beautiful.

Jenny Doan:
So for the outer border-

Natalie Earnheart:
It looks like a little dandelion.

Jenny Doan:
Yeah, it really does. You're going to need one and three quarter yards and I did a big six inch border and our backing is this dots right here. Now this makes a quilt that is 87 by 87, and look at this back. Isn't that just beautiful?

Natalie Earnheart:
It is. It kind of reminds me of like feed sacks a little bit.

Jenny Doan:
It really does, and any fabric you used on the back would look awesome in this line. They're all so eclectic. So this line is called the Lookout and, again, it's by Jen Kingwell for Moda Fabrics and it's just really, really a fun quilt and so I'm excited to show you how I put it together.

Jenny Doan:
So the inspiration from my quilt came when I was in an antique store and I found this block and when I saw this block, I was just like, "This'll be perfect for the Jacob's Ladder, a triple play." So I saved it and it's gorgeous and the little stitches-

Misty Doan:
Yes, look at these little stitches.

Jenny Doan:
Let's look at these stitches over here, because I think this is the good one where you can see them. I love that she doubled up right there. Really, really cute little stitches and I love seeing that and I love honoring these old blocks. This old block is called To the Altar or Trip to the Altar and so it's made with exactly the same components that Natalie did, four patches and half square triangles. The exact same size even as hers. The difference is mine has three half square triangles on each side. So six and then three four patches, which yours did too.

Natalie Earnheart:
The same number, the half square triangles are all just turned a different direction.

Jenny Doan:
They're just set differently. So let's go ahead and put a block together. I have my four patches made and I made them the exact same way. Then we have some half square triangles here. So what I did with mine was I did the same thing Natalie did where I laid mine going the same direction. So I put my color, my prints, all cascading going one direction like this, and then I threw in my half square triangles, which were ... let me turn this. I'm so angle-ly challenged, I have to follow a pattern, but most of us do so we're not going to die over it. All right. So then we're going to put this one. So we have a four patch, two half square triangles and the four patch and then another ... I'm sorry. I said four patch. I meant half square triangle. I'm surprised none of you caught me on that.

Jenny Doan:
Then this one goes in and then these two down here also go in. So let's get a couple of different ones down here. So we've got this one and then we've got ... oh, let's grab green one right here, like this.

Misty Doan:
Beautiful.

Jenny Doan:
So this makes my block right here. I want you to sew this together and so we're going to do the same thing we did with Misty and we're going to sew this together, but I actually assembled mine in blocks of four. I'll show you how that works and how it looks.

Misty Doan:
Ooh, nice big blocks.

Jenny Doan:
Yes.

Misty Doan:
That's awesome.

Jenny Doan:
Sometimes for a brain who is angle-ly challenged, if I try to do the tiny blocks in rows, I would be so mixed up. So sometimes it helps me to assemble them in bigger units so that it I feel like I have a completed portion. So it just works well for me. Oh, I'm going to move these over here. They're going to get mixed up with my other ones.

Jenny Doan:
All right. So then bring that back and here's the top going in the right direction even.

Natalie Earnheart:
That one got twisted. There we go. Is that correct?

Jenny Doan:
That is correct.

Natalie Earnheart:
Okay. I was worried that maybe I turned it upside down.

Jenny Doan:
No, it's always better to check on those. You would rather check than rip out. Now when you're dealing with this much black fabric, if you decide to use black, any color will work actually, but if you decide to use black, I would use black thread on this because it will show through. So we're using white because you can see it and that's what's on our machine, but I would generally use black. All right. So there's that one.

Natalie Earnheart:
This one goes color up.

Jenny Doan:
Yep. Color up. It's interesting. We all have the same little mantras. We can't wait to hear Misty's.

Misty Doan:
I know. We'll see what it is.

Jenny Doan:
We'll see.

Jenny Doan:
Then we're going to sew our rows together.

Misty Doan:
Just like before.

Natalie Earnheart:
Same method, totally different quilt.

Jenny Doan:
I want you to do the flip over on mine too.

Natalie Earnheart:
Oh, okay.

Jenny Doan:
My blocks will be so excited for a new way. That is such a great tip.

Misty Doan:
It's great tip.

Jenny Doan:
It's a great tip because I'm always looking under to see which way they're folded or I clip the seam if it folds over.

Misty Doan:
If it won't behave.

Jenny Doan:
Yeah.

Natalie Earnheart:
Just got to make sure they're all nested.

Jenny Doan:
Now we've got the Natalie flip.

Natalie Earnheart:
All right. So we just flip it this way, and then I turn that one over, shake that out a little bit and then you can see which way this goes up. They both go up.

Jenny Doan:
All right.

Misty Doan:
Awesome.

Natalie Earnheart:
So then this bottom one goes down.

Jenny Doan:
Yeah. It doesn't really matter. Such good tip.

Natalie Earnheart:
Makes life a little easier.

Jenny Doan:
No pressure, Nat. No pressure.

Natalie Earnheart:
There never is.

Natalie Earnheart:
Okay, that's enough.

Jenny Doan:
I'm putting my life in jeopardy by singing that probably.

Jenny Doan:
All right. You can iron.

Misty Doan:
I would be happy to.

Jenny Doan:
Slide this under here. Now I have some other blocks already made and let me show you how I put this together.

Natalie Earnheart:
So we're going to make a big four patch.

Jenny Doan:
A big giant four patch.

Misty Doan:
A big star, right?

Jenny Doan:
So there's a couple of ways you can orient this. But for me, for my brain, what I did was I oriented it with my four patches in the middle, which means every time you're going to turn your block. So I turned it and I turned this one. So just like this, and then I made this big star that came out like that. I love that. So do you want to go ahead and sew these together.

Natalie Earnheart:
Let's switch that one with a different one because you have those two pinks together.

Jenny Doan:
Oh.

Misty Doan:
Your greens and your pinks.

Jenny Doan:
No, we'll just have to turn this one. Wait, we'll turn this one.

Natalie Earnheart:
Then you have those two yellows.

Jenny Doan:
Oh, stop. You can get crazy about this.

Natalie Earnheart:
There's so many options, though.

Jenny Doan:
It's all right. It's going to be in a quilt.

Misty Doan:
It's going to all work together.

Jenny Doan:
All right. All right. So go ahead and sew these together.

Natalie Earnheart:
Sure thing.

Jenny Doan:
Honestly, this feels like I finish a quilt so much faster when I do it like this, because it is ... literally you get this giant block.

Misty Doan:
I was going to say you have those giant blocks.

Natalie Earnheart:
You're only putting, I don't know, six of them together or something. Or four.

Jenny Doan:
One, two, three, by three. Three by three.

Natalie Earnheart:
Goes together so quick.

Jenny Doan:
I'm going to put this one right here.

Natalie Earnheart:
Same direction?

Jenny Doan:
Same, same, same.

Misty Doan:
All right. Let's hope I get all these little seams matched up.

Jenny Doan:
You do have some matching to do on mine and it helps ... especially if you're using a contrasting color like black, it really helps to line up those seams because that is going to show. If your color is off a little bit, it is going to show. There were a few I took out, I must say.

Natalie Earnheart:
No judging here.

Jenny Doan:
Then you're going to sew those two big girls together.

Natalie Earnheart:
The big, long seam.

Jenny Doan:
The big, long blocks. There we go.

Natalie Earnheart:
Okay.

Jenny Doan:
This will keep your block really lined up because you do have ... every four and a half inches, you have a seam to match up. So it does work very well.

Natalie Earnheart:
There's a lot of little [inaudible 00:26:40]. Sometimes I appreciate that because it helps everything stay.

Jenny Doan:
Yeah. No, I like that too.

Misty Doan:
Yeah. I found that I do as well.

Jenny Doan:
It keeps everything squared up.

Misty Doan:
Keeps it all straight.

Jenny Doan:
Keeps it all lined up. Then if you have a block that's a little bigger, you can just ease that in and the whole block is still straight.

Natalie Earnheart:
Gives you all these little check buttons. Oh, they're slippery right now.

Jenny Doan:
That's all right. Finished is better than perfect.

Natalie Earnheart:
That's true.

Jenny Doan:
All righty.

Misty Doan:
Perfect. So if you want to iron those two big seams.

Jenny Doan:
I would love to.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's a lovely giant quilt block.

Jenny Doan:
It is.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's 24 and a half inches now.

Jenny Doan:
Right? The cool thing about them is because the block will mirror itself. So this will also be a four patch in the center that'll come together. So if you do have squares like these two together right here, I normally would really stress over that, but I discovered in putting these together that in this big quilt of all these eclectic fabrics, it really doesn't matter. So don't stress too much about your placement because it's really fun. So this is our block.

Misty Doan:
That looks so good.

Jenny Doan:
Isn't it awesome? It's just really fun.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's big and beautiful.

Jenny Doan:
So this is how it goes in the quilt right here. It's going to go right here and you're going to have one, two, three of these and by three down. So it just makes a really fast and quick quilt. But wait, there's something I want to show you about this because I actually did the same block. Let me show you. Now on this block right here. You can see all my colors come to the middle. All of my prints go in a line. I swapped them on this one. So now my black colors are going this way and I put the black into the middle. I just want to show you just this little twist, how different this looks when you put this together. So it's just turning those around one turn and you get a whole different look. I just couldn't resist showing you this. So I made this block. Let me put it up here.

Natalie Earnheart:
Oh, that's why you didn't want to put those blocks in.

Jenny Doan:
They're not the same.

Natalie Earnheart:
Now I understand. I didn't even notice that.

Jenny Doan:
So look at that little bit of difference.

Misty Doan:
How fun.

Natalie Earnheart:
That's very awesome.

Jenny Doan:
Where now black takes center stage rather than the fabric taking center stage. So you can see that just by turning the blocks, you get a whole different look and I just think that's really fun. It's just fun to see them in two different ways. Now this quilt is really busy and so I thought a lot about my stitch pattern and I ended up just going with a stipple, just a meander all around because it's already busy. Right? So I went with a silver thread on this so that it would kind of step back because in the black, it doesn't matter, but I didn't want it to show up big on the other ones. So again, we're going to add this little two and a half inch border. We have a six inch border out here and the quilt is 87 by 87. So it's a great size quilt, really fun to make. Of course, I just love this eclectic different fabric.

Misty Doan:
It's beautiful.

Jenny Doan:
So Misty, we're onto you.

Misty Doan:
Let's go.

Natalie Earnheart:
All right.

Misty Doan:
All right. So this is my quilt. This is called Woven Jacob's Ladder.

Jenny Doan:
I love it.

Misty Doan:
Thank you. I love how it came together and I love the fabric line.

Jenny Doan:
Fabric is gorgeous.

Misty Doan:
It is just gorgeous. So let me show you what you need to make this. You are going to need one package of 10 inch squares, and I use Midnight in the Garden by Sweet Fire Road for Moda. You'll also need a package of 10 inch background squares. I just used white. You'll need an additional three quarter yards for your inner border of that background. For the outer border, it's a six inch border and you need one in three quarter yards. Then for the backing, you need eight yards of 45 or two and three quarter yards of a 108. Let me show you this backing, because it's really sweet too. It's just these little yellow flowers.

Jenny Doan:
Isn't that darling?

Natalie Earnheart:
So beautiful.

Misty Doan:
I love it.

Jenny Doan:
Really pretty.

Natalie Earnheart:
That's one that it feels really elegant.

Misty Doan:
Yeah, I think so too. I really like it. So let me show you how we make this because we just do it a little different so that we keep our colors together, even though all of our pieces, our half square triangles and four patches, end up the same size.

Natalie Earnheart:
Very cool.

Misty Doan:
So let's take one of our print squares and one of our background and we are just going to stack these up and we are actually going to cut them in half each direction. Got to make a cut there.

Jenny Doan:
Now tell me the reason why you did it this way.

Misty Doan:
I did it this way because I wanted my four patches and half square triangles to be the same in the block.

Jenny Doan:
Oh, exact same. Okay.

Misty Doan:
Yep. I wanted my blocks to stay the same print.

Jenny Doan:
Which gives it a whole different look by the way, which I love.

Misty Doan:
Yeah. So now we've cut these in half and to begin with, we're going to make our four patches. Oops, these are not coming apart. There we go. So we're just going to sew on either side of these two. So if you want to do that to begin and then I'm going to draw a line here.

Natalie Earnheart:
That poor cutter just missed the middle.

Misty Doan:
Yeah. Just missed the center. Here we go. I'll use my pencil and we're going to draw a line on these two squares.

Misty Doan:
Oops. Got a little wonky there at the bottom.

Jenny Doan:
There are so many ways to make these same simple blocks that we make.

Misty Doan:
It's so true. There we go. Now I've drawn my diagonal line, so we're just going to sew on either side of these as well. Then we'll cut these apart. Oops. Then I'm going to measure in from my seam two and a quarter. Make sure it's the same here. There we go. If you want to press those open, Nat.

Natalie Earnheart:
Sure.

Misty Doan:
There we go. Where's this one? I found that these can get a little bit wonky. Oops. I almost made the wrong cut.

Jenny Doan:
I was going to say, you're going to cut a lot off there.

Misty Doan:
I'm fine.

Jenny Doan:
I was holding my breath.

Misty Doan:
So I measure from my scene that we just made two and a quarter, and so there's just a little bit to trim here and then-

Jenny Doan:
Well, that really keeps them the same size. That's pretty smart.

Misty Doan:
So then now we can trim these apart. Those are ready.

Natalie Earnheart:
Do you want them pressed open?

Misty Doan:
Yes, please.

Natalie Earnheart:
Okay.

Jenny Doan:
Do you want me to sew together the-

Misty Doan:
Then I want you to sew these, yes. So we're going to put these opposites like this, make sure they nest and we're going to sew the two sides again.

Jenny Doan:
Okay.

Misty Doan:
Perfect.

Natalie Earnheart:
One more, one more.

Misty Doan:
Awesome. Then again, we're just going to measure that two and a quarter from the seam line, trim and there's our little four patch ready to go.

Natalie Earnheart:
Perfect. They're so cute.

Misty Doan:
They're fun, aren't they? That one's good. So that doesn't need any trimming. One more here.

Jenny Doan:
Well, the cool thing about this is normally ... I mean, theoretically, you should be able to come in right from the side, but if your seams are a little off, then this clears all that problem up.

Misty Doan:
Then they'll just match up nicely.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's pretty Smart.

Jenny Doan:
Yeah. It's very smart.

Misty Doan:
There we go. All right. Now we need to square these. Where'd my little block lot go?

Natalie Earnheart:
It's right under.

Misty Doan:
Found it. Disappeared. So these we're going to trim and you can see, again, they're really close, but we're just going to trim off a little bit.

Jenny Doan:
They end up four and a half, so it's always good just to have that little ruler so you can make sure that they're just right.

Natalie Earnheart:
So smart.

Misty Doan:
So then the block lot goes on the background and we trim off our extra. There we go. A couple more and then we can lay these out.

Jenny Doan:
This quilt is just amazing to me because just with a little bit different something-something, you get a whole new design.

Misty Doan:
I always love that about the triple plays because we start with the same idea, I think we're always a little worried we're going to do the same thing, and it never happened.

Jenny Doan:
We don't always know what each other is going to do and I was well into mine when I was like, "Wait a minute, what are you guys doing?" All of a sudden I realized-

Natalie Earnheart:
I'm a big fan of communication.

Jenny Doan:
It's true.

Misty Doan:
It's true. It is so true. So then all of your half square triangles and four patches are done like that. You do take out five of your prints and five of your backgrounds to make our little middles that you see here.

Jenny Doan:
Okay. Which are different.

Misty Doan:
You'll notice some of them are print and some of them are white. So we technically have an A and B block, but they're made with the exact same piece.

Natalie Earnheart:
Same components.

Misty Doan:
Let's go ahead and lay those out and I'll bring one in here to start. So let's see, we start with our four patches in the corners and then our print goes up.

Natalie Earnheart:
Let me get this out of the way for you here.

Jenny Doan:
You're putting your color to the center.

Misty Doan:
The color to the center on this one. Yep. Then like so. Then I should have a little print here that we'll drop in and that's just cut to four and a half from our 10 inch squares. That's where we're getting that. Then my four patch. So there is-

Jenny Doan:
So your four patches all go the same direction.

Misty Doan:
The same direction.

Natalie Earnheart:
So block A is the one that has kind of a print in the middle and a white concentrated-

Jenny Doan:
This is block A.

Misty Doan:
That's block A. Exactly.

Natalie Earnheart:
That's very cool.

Misty Doan:
So then now we're just going to rotate all of our four patches, so they go the other way.

Jenny Doan:
Oh. Tricky.

Misty Doan:
Then we're going to rotate these. So they go ... is that right? Am I doing it right?

Jenny Doan:
Yes. Color in.

Misty Doan:
Color in, and we're going to swap out the middle.

Jenny Doan:
That's what gives it the chaining. That is very cool.

Misty Doan:
That's what makes the chain. So then the center turns to a background on that block and those are the two blocks.

Natalie Earnheart:
So block B is a white center. That's very cool.

Jenny Doan:
That is so cool, Misty.

Natalie Earnheart:
I love it.

Misty Doan:
Thank you. So you can see, I've got some of my A blocks and some of my B blocks here, and then we are just alternating between the two. So here's an A block and they all sit the exact same direction, and so it fits in just like so, and this one you can see is another A and then down here, all of that block is oriented the same way.

Jenny Doan:
That is so cool.

Misty Doan:
Then block B, same idea. Sits in just like so, opposite direction, but they're all the same way themselves.

Natalie Earnheart:
Oh, I love it.

Jenny Doan:
That is so cool. I love it.

Misty Doan:
It's pretty simple. So easy.

Jenny Doan:
So how big did yours end up?

Misty Doan:
Mine's the same size as yours, 87 by 87. It's a square quilt because I have six across by six down, this little two and a half inch inner and a six inch outer border. So easy peasy.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's like simply roses.

Misty Doan:
Yes. Simply roses is the quilting pattern.

Jenny Doan:
Oh, yeah.

Natalie Earnheart:
That's beautiful.

Jenny Doan:
It's one of our favorite patterns.

Misty Doan:
Thank you.

Natalie Earnheart:
It's really sweet.

Misty Doan:
I love all of these from the triple play. It's been so fun to see them.

Jenny Doan:
I do too. It's been really fun. So this was really fun. I love the Jacob's Ladder block.

Natalie Earnheart:
It was good. I loved it.

Misty Doan:
Yeah, I loved this one.

Jenny Doan:
We have three great ideas for you guys and we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the Jacob's Ladder block from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.

Jenny Doan:
Hi, everybody. It's Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company and I am here with Natalie and with Misty and we hope you enjoyed watching our latest triple play. You can find us together on the third Friday of each month as we hit another tutorial out of the park. If you aren't already part of the Missouri Star Quilt Company family, be sure to subscribe and click that bell to be notified each time we release a new video. See you next time.