MINI BLOCK DRIVE - MAY, JUNE, JULY 2019

Hi everyone, it’s time for the next round of the mini block drive, this time with Kate (@timetosew on Instagram). For the next few months we will be looking at two blocks:

Half Square Triangles (HSTs) 

Snowball blocks

Quilt inspiration 

There is lots you can do with just HSTs and Snowball blocks. We hope to be able to make up different quilt top designs depending on how many blocks are made. In the meantime, here’s some inspiration:

Caption: (L) Indian Summer quilt, (R) Lake Michigan Quilt, both patterns by Suzy Quilts

Caption: Fractals by Jeni Baker, and vintage snowball quilt (image from @allpeoplequilt)

Caption: (L) Mexican tile quilt from cloud 9 fabrics, and (R) variation on a snowball quilt by Suzy Quilts

BLOCK DETAILS

Unfinished size: HSTs unfinished can be 6 ½ inch or 3 ½ inches. Snowball block unfinished size is 6 ½ inches. Please leave all blocks untrimmed. 

Colour: white, off white. Prints are fine as long as the fabric still reads as white. No cream please. For the colours, I’d like mainly blues and yellows, but it can be anything you want as long as it is bright and happy. See the pictures for some inspiration.

For the snowball block, the centre can be the white or colour, I don’t mind. How many: as many as you want to make! If you have big squares of fabric you can make 4 or 8 HSTs at a time. 

Where to post: send me a message on Instagram @timetosew or email kate@timetosew.uk for the address

Colour inspiration: 

  

  

HSTs - How to make 

For two at a time 

Cut a square of white and a square of colour, each 7” size (for the large HSTs) or 4” (for the small HSTs) and place right sides together. 

Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner and sew with scant ¼ in seam allowance on both sides of the line. 

Cut on the diagonal line

Press seams to the colour side.

For eight at a time (see pictures):

Cut a square of white and a square of colour 14” (for the large HSTs) or 8” (for small HSTs) and place right sides together. 

Draw guidelines: along both diagonals, then vertically and horizontally on the halfway points. You can see mine in blue chalk. 

Sew ¼ inch on both sides from the blue diagonal chalk lines (4 lines of stitching in total).

Cut on all the blue chalk lines, press seams to the colour side.

Steps 2 and 3

Step 4 / finished blocks

Snowball block - how to make (refer to picture)

Cut one 6 ½ inch square of the white and four 2 ½ inch squares of colour (or cut a large colour square and 4x small white squares).

Put a small square on each corner, right sides together. 

Sew a diagonal line through the corners.

Press along the diagonal line

Trim corners with a ¼ in seam allowance and press back to get the finished corner.

Finished block