Sunday, July 5, 2009

Building Blocks - Square-in-a-Square II

I've been thinking of doing a series of building blocks type tutorials for a while now.  

Cut your centre diamond square (the square-in-a-square block in the picture below) C + 1/2" by C + 1/2".
For the triangles (White with heart fabric below) I cut two squares B + 1" by B + 1".  I prefer to trim my blocks when they're finished.  It makes the next steps easier.  If you're a wonderful sewer and don't want to trim then cut your squares B + 7/8" by B + 7/8".

Sew two of the triangles on opposite sides with a 1/4" seam allowance.

If I am sewing anything with points, like this block, I'll sew it upside down.  (Like the picture below)  You can see a little X in the seam below.  If you sew just one thread into the seam allowance beside that X, you'll end up with perfect points without needing to pin.

Here is a close-up of the X.

And here is the point you end up with.  All without needing to pin.  (Yes, I'm lazy.  I'll avoid extra steps wherever possible.)

Anyways, back to the block.  Press towards the outer triangles regardless of whether or not they're the lighter colour and trim the dog ears.

Now, repeat for the other sides.  Here are the triangles sewn with a 1/4" seam.

Here is the square-in-a-square - untrimmed.

And here it is trimmed.

I'll be doing mini-tutorials on different types of blocks that are typically pieces in larger more complex blocks.

I'm starting off with the Square-in-a-Square.  There are two ways to make this one.  This second one I call the triangles method.  (If anyone knows the real name, please let me know.)

This is the one I use if "C" works out to be a multiple of 1/8" or if the centre diamond is a block.

1 comment:

Dorothy said...

Liz nice tutorial,thats the way I do mine except I nub my triangles to the size of the square before I
sew.easy matching ,,lazy me..