June Mini Madness 2021 - Block 13

 Wishing you a restful weekend, today's block won't take you long, so you'll have plenty of time to do whatever it is you like to do when it's finished!  More of the sew and flip technique will make short work of this interesting block - Hatchet.

Cutting:

For 4 inch block, cut four 2 ½ inch squares of background, and four 2 inch squares of dark and medium fabrics.

For 6 inch block, cut four 3 1/2 squares of background fabric.  Cut four 2 ¾ inch squares of dark and medium fabrics.

Sew two dark squares to one 3 1/2 background square using the flip and sew technique.  Make two of these and repeat using light squares.

Trim and press triangles out.

Arrange dark and light units as pictured and sew togetherr.

That's it - you are finished!  Have a wonderful day, and I'll see you tomorrow with block 14 - we are edging up to the halfway mark!

June Mini Madness 2021 - Block 12

A happy Saturday to you all!  Today's block is a fun one, another sew and flip block - easy and quick!

Cutting:

For 4 inch block, cut four 1 ½ x 2 ½ inch rectangles of dark and medium.  Cut sixteen 1 ½ inch squares of background.

For 6 inch block, cut four 2 x 3 ½ inch rectangles of dark and medium.  Cut sixteen 2 inch squares of background.

This time I used tape on my sewing machine bed to help me sew the diagonal lines on the background squares.  Make sure you sew the angle as shown - otherwise your swirl will go the opposite direction.

This tape is available in quite a few places, and it's very handy!  Just search diagonal seam tape on google - it'll pop right up for you.

Trim off the triangles and you are ready to do the other side.  

Press the triangles out to the corner, then turn around and add the remaining squares to the other side.

Trim and press the second side, and you are ready to sew them into pairs.

Place the pairs so that the dark fabric strips are in the center of the block.

And you have a finished Swirl!

Super fun!  I love the movement in this one!

See you tomorrow with block 13!

June Mini Madness 2021 - Block 11

 Apologies for omitting the cutting instructions for yesterday's block - I think this month is catching up with me.  I've added them to the post, so you can find that here:  Block 10 instructions.  So sorry!

Block 11 is an interesting one - I've changed the way the block is constructed in EQ8 and used the sew and flip method to make this block a breeze to cut and sew!

Cutting:

For 4 inch blocks, cut two 2 7/8 squares (cut in half diagonally) of dark and background, and eight 1 ½ inch squares medium.

For 6 inch blocks, cut two 3 7/8 squares (cut in half diagonally) of dark and background, and eight 2 inch squares medium.

Sew the dark and background half square triangles together to make four 2 1/2 (3 1/2) inch squares.  Trim the dog ears off.

The next step is to sew a 1 1/2 (2) inch square to each corner of the pieced squares.

Trim off the excess, and press the corners out for two of the squares, and carefully press the seam allowances toward the center on the other two squares.  This will allow you to nest the seams nicely when you assemble the blocks.

I have the pdf ready for blocks 6 - 10, you can download them here:

June Mini Madness 2021 Block Instructions Page 2

I decided to go ahead and complete the rest of the videos, but I won't have time to work on them for a couple of days.  I'll post them when I get them done, but will continue to post the written instructions each day.  

See you tomorrow!

June Mini Madness 2021 - Block 10

 Woohoo - here we are at day 10 of June Mini madness 2021, which means that we are one third of the way done!  Todauy's block is a fun one - True Lover's Knot.  It looks a lot harder than it is, you will be surprised at how quickly this one goes together!

Cutting:

For 4 inch block, cut eight 1 ½ inch squares of background and four 1 ½ inch squares each of dark and medium plus four 1 inch squares each of dark and medium.

For 6 inch block, cut eight 2 inch squares of background and four 2 inch squares each of dark and medium plus four 1 ½ inch squares each of dark and medium.

Seems like a lot pieces, but once you start sewing, this block will be ready in a flash!  Start out by sewing one of the small squares to a background square using the sew and flip technique.  I like to keep mine all chained together, then line the stitched seam up on a line on my sewing mat.  Measure 1/4 inch from the seam then - off with the whole line of triangles at once!

Then press the triangles toward the outside of the blocks.

Match the background units with the solid squares and make four bow tie blocks with them.  

These will sew together to make the finished block!  Super easy, right?  

OOPS - I forgot to get a picture of the finished block, so I'll add that to tomorrow's post.  

I am interested in making a whole quilt of this block, too - I played in EQ8 and really like it set on point like this:

I'm thinking it might be fun using 30's reproduction prints and scrappy!

Here's the link to the video of me making the True Lover's Knot Block

I have a question for you - I've noticed very few views for the videos, so I'm thinking that if the videos aren't something that people are very interested in that I would rather spend my time doing something else.  Let me know if you really like them and want me to continue, otherwise I think I will change course and save myself the work!  Thanks so much :)

See you tomorrow with Block 11!

June Mini Madness 2021 - Block 9

 Today's block is going to stretch you a bit, this is the one block in the whole set that features measurements using 16th of an inch.  Don't panic!  A sixteenth of an inch sounds small and it is, but it's just those measurements between the eight of an inch mark on your ruler.  Here is a post I wrote earlier about this:  Help in Measuring Sixteenth of an Inch for Quilt Pieces.  Now, let's get on to today's block - Coxey's Camp.

Cutting:  

For 3 inch block, cut two 1 3/16 inch squares of dark and light fabric, two 1 7/8 inch squares of background (cut in half diagonally) four 1 ½ inch squares of medium, and four 1 x 2 ½ inch strips of dark and background.

3/16 is the measurement between 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch.

For 6 inch block, cut two 1 9/16 inch squares of dark and light fabric, two 2 3/8 inch squares of background (cut in half diagonally), four 2 inch squares of medium, and four 1 1/4 x 3 ½ strips of dark and background.

9/16 is the measurement between 1/2 and 5/8 of an inch.

Take the light and dark squares and sew them into a four patch unit.

Next, add the white triangles to the edges of the four patch unit.  Line up the center of the long side of the triangle with the center of the four patch.

Add triangles to opposite sides.

Press out and add remaining two triangles.  Press to outside, and trim dog ears.  Your finished four patch in a square will measure 2 1/2 inches (3 1/2 inches for the 6 inch block.)

Next sew the dark and background strips together to make rectangles.  Arrange these with dark fabric toward center and place medium fabric squares at corners.  Sew block together.  

Press your seams away from center of block.

Two blocks together - I don't know which is my favorite.

When looking up this block on the internet I found this intriguing half drop layout.  I really like this!

If you'd like to see my video, check out my facebook page, I'll post it there.  Have a wonderful day, tomorrow is block 10 - that means 1/3 of the way finished!!!

June Mini Madness 2021 Block 8

 I hope you are enjoying these fun little blocks as much as I am!  It's been a pleasure to make each one of these little gems for me.  Today we'll be making Susannah - which is very similar to yesterday's block.

Cutting:

For four inch block you will need one 2 1/2 inch square of background, and four 1 1/2 inch squares of medium and background and eight 1 1/2 inch squares of light.

For six inch block you will need one 3 1/2 inch square of background and four 2 inch squares of medium and background and eight 2 inch squares of light.

Start out by using four light squares and your background square to make a diamond in a square unit.

Next, sew the remaining light squares to the medium squares to make the side rectatangles.

Lay out your block as shown, then sew together to finish - quick and easy!

Love these batiks!  I'm using the Northern Lights collection from Island Batik for this set of blocks, and am really glad because they are just so pretty!

Finished blocks in both sizes!

And video for block 8:

See you tomorrow with another block!

June Mini Madness 2021 - Day 7

 Hello!  Hope you had a lovely weekend, and are ready for another week of block making!  Today's block will introduce another technique - Sew and Flip (I say it backwards about half the time, but you definitely have to do the sewing part first).  This is New Album:

Cutting:

Four inch block:  One 2 1/2 inch square dark, four 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch rectangles of light, four 1 1/2 inch squares of background and medium.

Six in block:  One 3 1/2 inch square dark, four 2 x 3 1/2 inch rectangles of light, four 2 inch squares of background and medium.

To add the corners to the center, start by drawing a diagonal line on the back of the background squares.  (Or you can choose to sew without lines - if you are brave and can sew the line accurately!  Place on corner of dark square, and sew on line from corner to corner of background square.  You can add the opposite corner as well before you trim and press out.

Trim 1/4 inch from seam (scant quarter on smaller blocks can help with bulk).

Press triangles toward corner of block.

Add remaining to corners to create a diamond in a square (or square in a square) unit.

Lay out block as shown and sew together

Looking good!

That's it for today!  Hope you enoy making this simple block - the center is a great spot for some fussy cutting if you like!

Here's the video of making the four inch block:

See you tomorrow with block 8! Oh, and if you would like to download a pdf file with instructions for the first five blocks it is available here:

June Mini Madness blocks 1-5

I'll make the remaining block instructions available as we get through them.  Enjoy!