Block 20

Here are all the pieces set out and ready to go.  You can see, for the corners, I cut rectangles that fit the longest measurement of the point and then trimmed things up when the corner piece was assembled.

Here is a close up of the corner.  One trimmed the other ready for trimming.

Onto the centre.  First I assembled the 4 patch and the outer posts.

Then the 4 patch becomes the centre of a square-in-a-square block.

Then I added the middle, light border.

Then the outer border.  The centre of the block is ready for its corners.

And here is is with the corners attached.

Block 73

A nice simple block for us to recover from last week's tougher one.  With this block, the block diagram and block picture in the book are different.  The blocks with the three bars (rail fence?) are rotated.  After some playing with things, I decided to go with the block diagram.  I just liked the way it looked better with my fabric choices.

Here is everything laid out and ready to go.  That stack in the middle is the square-in-a-square.

Here things are with the building blocks assembled.  Ready to go together as our old friend the 9-patch.

And here is the final block!  Looking at it, a little more contrast between the two mediums would have been nice, but overall I like it.

Block 37

This block, while not complex does have a lot more pieces than the blocks we've done these past few weeks.

Instead of laying out everything at once and overwhelming everyone with it all, here are the pieces for each of the main elements.  Both the corner and centre blocks start off with square-in-a-square.  While the middle edge blocks are hour-glass blocks.

If you notice the corner blocks, they're not quite a standard square-in-a-square block.  What I did was cut the four white triangles to fit the largest triangle and treated the block exactly like the traditional square-in-a-square.  When you trim the first two triangles, you just end up taking off much larger dog ears and your block looks a little like this:

Here we are with the hour-glass blocks, the first round of square-in-a-square blocks and the red & white 1/2 square triangles for the centre square all ready to go.

For the sides of the hour-glass blocks I cut the strips wider than needed and trimmed after sewing.  This helps make the tiny strips a little more accurate.

Here we have the second round of square-in-a-square blocks and the hour-glass blocks trimmed and ready.  Plus, I've laid out the rest of the pieces so we see everything for the whole block.

Here I've added the white borders to the hour-glass blocks and added the next border to the centre block.

Now I've put the top and bottom rows together and finished off the centre block.

Here we have the middle row sewn together.

And, finally, the finished block!

I think this one turned out pretty interestingly and enjoyed making it more than I thought I would when I first looked at the block diagram.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Block 48

This block looked like it was a two colour block, but looking at the finished block it could be really interesting with more fabrics.

Here is everything all laid out and ready to go.  The squares to the side are for the 1/2 square triangles on the centre white rectangles.

Here it is with the 1/2 square triangles.  To make them I cut squares 1/2 inch larger than the finished triangle.  Drew a line diagonally across the square and then sewed on the line.

Here I've assembled the sub-blocks.  And, look!  it's our old friend the 9-patch.

For this one I pressed the top and bottom rows away from the centre which left me pressing towards the centre for the centre row.

And here is our finished block for the week.  I hope you have a great week ahead.  (And where ever you are, it not snowing like it is here.)

Block 77

I started this block off with a paper pieced centre.  (The measurements for the centre were a little funny.)  Not the numbering on the paper, I did that on purpose to make the seams but together when putting the whole thing together.

I also created the flying geese using the fast flying geese method.  And did the diagonals on the two corner blocks.  For that, I took the finished measurement of the triangle (white fabric) and added 1/2 inch to get the size of square to cut.  Then I drew a line across the diagonal.  Then sew across the line.

Here are all the elements laid out and ready to go.  Once again, we're back to our old friend the 9-patch.

When I assemble a 9-patch, I put the rows together.  I make sure that the centre is pressed to the opposite sides from the top and bottom.  (Makes aligning the seams in the next step easier)  In this case, I pressed the seams on the centre block towards the inside so there was less bulk on the flying geese points.

And here is our finished block.

Block 84

This block is another fairly simple one.  It's a 9-patch centre with a courthouse steps variation.  Some of the strips are fairly narrow so I cut them wide and trimmed after sewing just to help with accuracy.  Here we start with all the pieces cut and laid out.

Here I've started on the centre 9-patch and sewing any of the outside units that I could.  (I try to chain piece anything I can)

Here is the finished 9-patch and all the outer units pieced, trimmed, and ready to go.

Now It's just a matter of adding the outer units...  Sides

Top...

Sides....

Top...

And Voila!  Our next block in the series.  I hope everyone is enjoying this quilt as much as I am.  

Happy Easter!

Block 98

Last week we had the first block in the quilt.  This week we're having the last one.

As always, the non-red and white shows what you'd do if you are making the block and then cutting it in half diagonally.  First thing I did was make the flying geese blocks and set up the remaining blocks.

I then started the square-in-a-square and putting the middle border blocks together.

Here is the centre square-in-a-square completed.

Then starting with the edges on the middle border.

Then the final pieces for the middle border.

Then repeat it for the outer border and the block is done and ready for slicing.

This is what you'll want to follow if you're including the seam allowance for the blocks.  Once again I started off with the flying geese.

Then I started attaching triangles.

Then I added the remaining white triangles and the squares for the middle and outer rounds.

Here is the middle round added.

And finally the outer round attached.  And here is the square with the additional seam allowance.