Welcome to part 1 of Finishing Your Quilt as part of the Virtual Quilting Bee! (Apologies for it being a little lot late in the day. It's just been one of those weeks.) There will be three most posts after this one to help you finish your quilt! That's it!
In this post we are going to add corners to our sixteen pieced blocks to make them larger. This block is traditionally called a Square in a Square. I'm also going to talk a little bit about color and fabric choices.
The Square in a Square block is a very traditional block where a square is set on point, with four corners added to create, you guessed it, another square. In this case we are going to take our 8" (finished - 8 ½" unfinished) blocks and set them on point with a triangle on all four sides. For the blocks in the Kona solids version, I am putting white corners on every block. (I'm using Kona Snow as my white.) I'm going to used colored solids for the sashing for this block, hence the reason the setting squares are all white.
When I'm squaring off the sides, I like to use a ruler with 45 degree lines that lay right on the edges of my center block, with a built-in-guide giving me my ¼" seam allowance.
Again, make sure to square-up blocks to 11 ¾". (Important to remember. When you're squaring up your blocks, be sure to find the center of the block and use that as your guide on all four sides. (See Squaring up Half- Square Triangles and the Hour Glass Block tutorial for examples.) I know it's a little more effort to really square-off the blocks, but the crisp edges are so much easier to sew down the road.
Happy Go Lucky yardage, precuts and some bundles, is still available at The Little Fabric Shop, Poppyseed Fabrics, and Southern Fabrics.
Great selection of Kona solids and bundles at Christa Quilts and Mad About Patchwork.
Lynn
I'm hoping to be able to get started on this to at least get the top done and quilt next year :0) thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!
quiltswithpersonality
Loving your square in a square blocks.
Elizabeth
I'm working on a Square in a Square quilt, I wish I knew about the pineapple tool. It's seems to make it easier to get the final square square.
Katy Cameron
Looking good, so close to the end now :o)
akainik
Gorgeous!!
Amy Corbett
For the solids quilt, do you suggest using the same background color or all the squares?
amy smart
Great question. I need to clarify in the post what I'm doing. For my solids, I'm using white for the setting triangles of ALL the blocks. Then I'm going to make the sashing colored and have the contrast there.
Gotcha Covered Quilting
Fantastic tutorial and love your blocks!
Brenda Ratliff
oh these are so cute!
Lynn
Thanks for heads up on the triangles I had actually cut a few 6 1/2 so good to know to use that scant seam! I'm a little intimidated about getting it all squared up but can't wait to get working on it!