Birds in the Air Quilt Block

Skill Level: Beginner

The Birds in the Air quilt block is a common unit found within many, many other patchwork designs.

If you are making just a few blocks, traditional piecing methods work just fine.

For larger quantities, when concentration is tempted to wander, I prefer paperpiecing for two reasons:

• Accuracy—as long as you stay on the line at the beginning and the end, you're golden, and...

• Taming bias edges—the paper stabilizes all the edges during construction
  

Examples of designs that include the Birds in the Air unit in their construction are:

With RST, align and center the long bias edge of #2 over #1 like this...

...and stitch, starting before the line between #1 and #2 begins and after it ends by approximately 1/4" (as indicated by the red arrows).

Press. (Because I starched my fabric ahead of time, I was able to fingerpress these patches open.)

With RST, align the short side of #3 with #1 and stitch as before, both starting and stopping about a quarter inch before and after the solid stitching line.

Press.

Add #4 in the same manner.

After stitching, now trim any dog ears and thread tails in the center of the block. (Trimming the block to size at the end will take care of the rest of the thread tails!)

Press. (Here I did press with my iron. I wanted the unit nice and flat before trimming.)

At this point we create a placement line for Patch #5.

Match the edge of your rotary ruler to the solid stitching line between #3, #4 and #5.

Crease the paper with your finger and fold the pattern back on this creased line. (You need to gently tug to pull the paper away from the stitches.)

Now align the 1/4" mark of your ruler with the fold and cut along the edge of the ruler with your rotary cutter. You've just created a 1/4" seam allowance.

You might like an 'Add-a-Quarter' ruler for this type of trimming.

With RST, align the long bias edge of #5 with the long side of the sewn patches.

Stitch, again starting and stopping before and after the line by a generous quarter inch.

Press.

This is the stitched block.

Up 'til now, we haven't bothered to clean up the thread tails along the outside edges. When the block is trimmed to size, it's done automatically. There's no need to make extra work for ourselves.

Trim the block to size by placing the 1/4" line of your ruler on the solid outside line. Trim.

Repeat for the remaining three sides.

Your finished Birds in the Air quilt block looks like this.

For traditional piecing instructions to make this block, click here.

To see blocks that have the same name, but look completely different, click here.

Print the pattern to match your chosen Finished Block Size.

Print the Birds in the Air Variation Units
Finished Block Size	Link to PDF Download
2"	2"
2 1/2"	2-1/2"
3"	3"
4"	4"

To make it follow the instructions for Patches #1-#5, just leave out the last trimming to size—we've got one more patch to add.

At your cutting mat, paper side up, line up your ruler with the solid line between #5 and #6. Crease the paper along this line with your thumbnail.

Fold the paper back on itself and place the 1/4" line of the ruler on the fold. Trim away the excess leaving behind a quarter inch seam.

After trimming #5 this is what it looks like from the fabric side.

Align the long bias edge of a #6 with the cut edge of #5. Stitch as before starting and ending a generous 1/4" from the solid line.

Give your block a press before trimming.

Now to create our perfectly sized block and get rid of thread tails.

To trim, lay the quarter inch markings of your rule (red arrow) on the solid outside line and trim. Repeat for the remaining three sides.

Our finished Birds in the Air variation after trimming all four sides.

Here is our Birds in the Air variation from the back.