Twinkle Star - Quilter's Recipe Box - Alternate for Quarter Square Triangle Unit

Welcome - today I am showing the last alternate block for Quarter Square Triangle Units.  This time I'll be using three colors in the quarter square triangles and adding four-patch units to the corners.  I call this block Twinkle Star:

For this block you will need a 2 x 17 inch strip of your background fabric, plus a 2 x 17 inch strip of another color.  Two 4 1/4 inch squares for your star points, one 4 1/4 square of your background and one 4 1/4 square that matches the center square, which will be one 3 1/2 inch piece.  All of the fabrics I am using from this are Island Batik.  The lovely colors are from the Dotalicious line - so pretty!  The background is an older cloud pattern, which I am loving with these dots.

Sew the two 2 x 17 inch strips together, cut in half and lay right sides together with opposite colors touching.  Cut 4 2 inch strips and sew together to make four 3 1/2 inch four patch units.  These will go in the corners of your blocks.

I made the quarter square triangles the same way I made the variable star block.  Layer the background square with one of the star squares and the center square with the other star square.  Cut in half diagonally and sew four half square triangle units.

  Layer two sets of the two different units and cut in half diagonally - sew together to make four matching units.

Then lay the out with your finished units like this:

And sew together.   I press the seams away from the triangles where possible and press the long seams toward the outside.  Here is the finished block;

I love playing with the blocks and trying to come up with an interesting layout.  This block will look great in an alternate layout with many other nine patch blocks.  Here it is with one of our five patch variations:

This quilt includes all five of the units we have covered in the last 5 months!  Make sure you come back next Monday - I'll have a fun giveaway for you and we'll be taking a look at all the blocks that have been made so far.  Thanks for following along!

Quilter's Recipe Box Alternate for Quarter Square Triangle - Clown's Choice

Hi it's another Monday and time for another quilt block pattern!  I've really enjoyed doing all these blocks and it's been fun to use some old favorites and also explore some new and different blocks!

Today's alternate block for the Quarter Square Triangle Unit is a quick little block that goes by Clown's Choice.  I think this might be an interesting block to make a modern quilt out of, the lines and angles could be really interesting.  I found some fun colorations of it here on meadowside-designs.  I decide to go with red and blue for my block:

This block requires 5 quarter square triangle units, so you will need to cut three 4 1/4 squares each of your background fabric and your contrasting fabric.  You will also need four  3 1/5 inch squares of your background fabric.  

I chose to make my quarter square triangles using the same method as I used last week, I cut my 4 1/4 inch squares in half after layering the pairs right sides together, then sewed the halves together to make 6 half square triangles.  

After sewing, press with seams toward the darker fabric (I pressed toward the red)  

I then layered these in pairs right sides together with the red halves paired against the blue halves.  Cut in half diagonally, sew and press.  You end up with 6 squares.  Set one aside (spare parts can be useful!) and lay the 5 Quarter Square Units out with the 4 background squares:

Sew and press and you end up here:

Have you ever made (or even heard of) this block before?  Not me - this was a new one!  See you next week for another block - then the last Monday of June we'll have a review and a giveaway post.  Thanks for following along!

Quilter's Recipe Box Unit Five - Quarter Square Triangle

The Quarter Square triangle is such a versatile unit - and it happens to be a part of one of my favorite quilts blocks - the Ohio Star!  This is actually not much harder than a half square triangle, you just have an extra seam in the middle to match up.

To cut the pieces for a Quarter Square Triangle, you cut a square 1 1/4 inches larger than the size of your finished unit and cut in half diagonally both directions.  For our Ohio Star blocks you will need 2 squares 4 1/4 inches of your background fabric and two squares 4 1/4 of a colored fabric - this will give you a total of 8 triangles of each color.  You will also need 4 3 1/2 inch background squares and 1 3 1/2 square of a focus fabric:

Sew your background and colored triangles in pairs - make sure to keep the same color on top for each pair so you end up with matching triangles!  Here's a video I made of the sewing process:

Once you have all four Quarter Square Triangle units sewn, arrange like below and sew together to complete your block.

I love the greens in this version!  Do you recognize the block from the center of the medallion I made last summer?

Thanks for following along!  You can download the Recipe Card for this months unit here:

Unit 5 Quarter Square Triangle

Come back next week for another block featuring this unit - can't wait to show you what I came up with!