September 2011

September 2011

Sweet Sixteen Series—Block Seven

All of the blocks will finish at 16 inches square, and have the same four patch in the corners.

The four patches are made with 2½ inch squares. Choose colors that have a lot of contrast, a dark with a light. If you made all the four-patches with us at the beginning of the series, you have a head start!

Here's the link to the introduction page.

This block is made of only squares and half square triangles. That largest square, where I have orange, you need to cut at 4½ inches square. You'll also need twelve 2½ squares for the largest star shape, where I am using royal blue.

These were my four half-square triangle color pairings, you'll need eight of each:

Royal to white, royal to pale yellow, royal to dark yellow and light blue to white.

I preferred to use pre-printed papers to make the half square triangles. You'll need the 2½ inch finished size for all the triangles in this block. Here's a website where you can print them for free:

Quilting and Whatnot

We're using the biggest size offered on the site - did you notice all the really teeny ones on there? Whew!

Measure and make sure your printer is printing these the correct size. Mine were printing just a hair bigger than 2½, so when I cut them into triangles, I cut slightly inside the line instead of on the line..

Remember, you'll need 8 half-square triangles for each color pairing. I trimmed off a diamond shape (like on the lower right) then cut fabric that size, to make 8 at once.

I cut fabric slightly larger than my paper, put it right sides together, and pinned the paper on top.

Then I stitched on top of the dashed lines, first the outer diamond shape, then the inner diamond shape.

For one of my fabrics, I had a small strip left from an earlier block, so I chose to use two V shapes, to make four at a time, like on the upper right.

Next, using a rotary cutter and ruler, trim on the solid line around the outside of the paper pattern, cutting off any excess fabric on the edges.

Last, cut on all the SOLID lines, and trim your dogears until your triangles look like mine, to the left.

Remove the paper and press flat.

Here's the way I chose to sew all my units together. I made the yellow and orange star in the square first, then the side units and corners.

You'll see that I could have had far fewer seams if I'd made flying geese units, or even paper pieced the whole thing, but . . . this time I just felt like the easiest way to do it was to use the half square triangle paper.

Feel free to do it differently if you choose! :)

Press. The block should now measure 16½ inches square.

What does YOUR block look like?

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