Fellow Quilters,

Yesterday was not the best day.  I am scrambling to get my Time to Quilt daily blocks done, write the pattern that includes the 3 size options and then get a blog post written to share the pattern with you.  My goal is to get everything done at least a day in advance so the pattern is in your Inbox when you start your day, not at dinnertime.  I’m hoping to be there by Sunday.  Hubby says I’m like a mini tornado tearing around the house.  Half-way through dinner last night I realized I had an epic fail on yesterday’s blog post.  Did you have a hard time finding my instructions in my blog post yesterday?  Of course you did, because I forgot to provide the link.  So sorry!  This is not supposed to be a “hide-and-seek” kind of thing – the download link is supposed to be quite obvious.  Hubby says I need a checklist.  Recently I watched a short TED talk video about the importance of checklists and how it reduced deaths during surgery by a whopping 47%.  I now have a checklist.  Guess what’s on the top of the list?  Yup, include the pattern link.  I updated yesterday’s post to include the link in not one but 2 places, and I am including it here as well.  I’m also going to make it easy for you to find the daily download by placing it at the end of each post in a very obvious spot in addition to earlier references in the post.  Now on to today’s block.

Block 3

Block 3  is a pretty 9-patch block with lots of sew-and-flip triangle corners.

Sew-and-flip corners

We place a square in the corner, sew diagonally through the square and trim away the excess fabric in the corner.

Easy peasy!  The downside is that it wastes some fabric, unless we keep those trimmed-off corners for another project.

wasted trimmings

It’s a trade-off between accuracy/ease of construction and cost of fabric.  When I was working on the calculations for the cutting of my 3 options, I used Northcott/Banyan/FIGO’s pattern for Block 3 as a starting point.  The yardage requirements given are “fat ⅛yd or 6 inches”.  As a rule, I use a size of 20” x 9” for a fat ⅛, and a size of 40” x 4½” for ⅛yd.  I couldn’t cut the required pieces from either of these sizes.  I needed a 6” x width-of-fabric strip.  But I want to use a fat ⅛, so how can I squeeze the pieces out of it?

A square-in-a-square block replaces sew-and-flip corners in the center of Block 3

I re-gigged the center square to construct it from one smaller on-point square and 4 half-square triangles – a square-in-a-square – so my instructions are once again different than the Northcott, Banyan and FIGO ones on Facebook or Instagram.  I also needed my fat ⅛ to measure 21” wide instead of 20”.  Because I am using my Vino batiks, this wasn’t a problem.  When I am using regular printed cottons, I occasionally use part of the white selvage for my seam allowance (I did this on my super-size Shimmer Block 1).

I used part of the selvage for my seam allowance in my Shimmer Block 1

I just don’t use ALL the selvage.  The edge is where the tightness is, and I want to avoid that.

Today’s tip:  When sewing the center square-in-a-square block, we align the corner triangles so that they extend ⅜” beyond the top and bottom edges of the square.

The upper and lower tips of the triangle extend 3/8″ beyond edges of square

Our ¼” sewing line starts and ends on the triangle, not at the edge of the block.

Sew with a 1/4″ seam

After adding triangles to opposite edges of the square, I finger-press my seams toward the triangles.

When adding the adjacent triangle it crosses the upper and lower triangles 1/4″ from the right edge for perfect placement.

When I add the triangles to the remaining opposite edges, they are correctly aligned when they cross the previous triangles ¼” from the edge.  We saw this with yesterday’s block – when 2 seams cross at opposite angles our ¼” seam goes right through the “V”.  If we lay both triangle pieces on the square, the overlapped part in the center will be a square.

The overlapped part is square

If it’s a rectangle, one of the triangles isn’t correctly positioned.

The overlapped part is a rectangle – not good! The triangle on the right is too high.

Here are my finished blocks.  The Midsommar block units were SMALL!  I slowed my sewing speed right down and took my time with them, and they came out perfect – yay😊

Block 3 is done!

As promised, here is the link to my multi-sized Time to Quilt Block 3.

I’ve got a short checklist for you today:

1)  You’ll want to check out my friend Daphne’s blog post today too.  She shares some great tips and some pretty layouts for quilts made with today’s block.

2)  Share your best blocks for this week on Northcott or Banyan’s Facebook page or on Instagram, tagging FIGO, for a chance to win free fabric!  Don’t forget to add #timetoquiltnorthcott, #timetoquiltbanyan or #timetoquiltfigo

We’ll see you back here tomorrow for Block 4.  Have a great day!

Cheers,

Patti

Fellow Quilters,

How are you today?  Where I am it snowed last night.  Just a bit, and it melted quickly so it’s gone now, but this tells me it’s too early to think about planting flowers.  I’m glad it was cold enough to snow because Hubby put the balance of our homemade moose lasagna dinner outside to cool down before putting it in the fridge, and we (he) left it out all night.  Thankfully the squirrels didn’t find it. Or the deer. Or the coyotes – I think we would have heard the coyotes if they had found it.

My blog posts for the next 23 days will center around the Time to Quilt quilt-along.  I’m pretty pumped – in 3 weeks time I’m going to have the blocks for 3 quilts done and ready to be assembled!  There’s the wall-hanging/crib-size Midsommar make-it-mini version that is 32” x 41”, the throw-size Vino ice wine version that is 69” x 89”, and the super-sized Shimmer queen version that is a whopping 94” x 118”.  Crazy me for doing a quilt for each of Northcott’s divisions AND for making each one a different size block – the standard 9” that the other participants at Northcott are using, the super-sized 12” and the make-it-mini 4½”.  What size are you doing?  Are you challenging yourself by doing more than 1 size as well?  Please leave a comment letting me know – I would love your feedback.  Please also share photos of your fabric choices and your blocks – you can email them to me at patti.pattispatchwork@gmail or post them on my Patti’s Patchwork Facebook page.

The link to my instructions that include the 3 size options for Block 1 was in yesterday’s post.  If you’re doing the standard 9” option you can also find the instructions on Northcott, Banyan and FIGO’s Facebook and Instagram pages, along with ideas on how to use just the daily block to make a quilt.  Some of the quilts are pretty awesome!  My good friend and colleague Daphne is also posting daily on her blog using her Tapa Cloth collection.  Lots of ideas and inspiration for you.

So let’s get to today’s block.   You will find my instructions here.  When I design or make a quilt I’m all about simplifying, eliminating unnecessary steps or seams, and making the process more efficient.

Can you see flying geese units?

When I looked at today’s block I saw flying geese units.  Can you see them too?  While I could make the flying geese unit using 2 half-square triangle blocks, my efficient brain wants to eliminate the center seam connecting the 2 half-square triangle blocks.  Looking at today’s block I see 2 light-colored flying geese and 2 dark-coloured flying geese.

The no-waste method of making flying geese units.

My favorite way of doing flying geese is the no-waste method where I use 1 large square for the geese fabric and 4 smaller squares for the sky fabric, resulting in 4 identical flying geese blocks.  Now, there are only 2 of each geese in today’s block so this might not work.  But wait!

Between the positive and negative blocks there are 4 light and 4 dark geese

In the alternate block there are also 2 light-coloured and 2 dark-coloured flying geese blocks – perfect!  We can do this 😊.

Today’s tips:  1) When laying the smaller sky squares on the larger geese square, lay the upper sky square on top of the lower square to prevent the presser foot from getting caught on the leading edge of the lower square.

Position the upper square on top of the lower square

2)  My favorite marking tool for drawing on darker fabrics is the Clover white marking pen – it makes a very thin line and disappears with a drop or 2 of water or with a quick swipe of the iron.  The line takes 10 seconds to appear so if you mark the line several times in the first 2 seconds thinking it’s not working, you’ll have a REALLY obvious line in 10 seconds.  Voice of experience here.

The Clover white marking pen is my favorite way to mark dark fabrics.

3)  In step 2 of my instructions, when you lay the sky square on the unit from step 1 the square will be centered between the 2 sky triangles.

The sky square is centered between the 2 sky triangles

I pinned my piece to ensure it stayed correctly aligned as I sewed the seams.  Your sewing lines will go right through the “V” where the sky patches intersect.  This will give you a perfect ¼” seam allowance between the tip of your geese and the edge of the unfinished unit.

Your sewing lines will go right through the “V” where the sky patches intersect

With my Midsommar blocks I knew I wanted to use some of my gray background in these blocks since they are on the outer edges of my quilt center.  Unfortunately the no-waste geese method didn’t work because I did not have 4 of each geese unit in my block.

I had to cut my large and small squares diagonally

I cut my large and small squares diagonally and assembled them the old-fashioned way – it was slower and more tedious.

I made these flying geese units the old-fashioned way – slow!

I much prefer the no-waste method.

Once the geese units were done, I sewed 2 matching units together for the square-in-a-square part of the block, pressing the seam open to reduce bulk, then quickly assembled the block.

Sew 2 matching geese units into a square then sew the block together

Ta da!  Another set of blocks done!  In case you missed it earlier, the pattern for Block 2 is here.

Block 2 done

Are your quilting peeps joining you in the Time to Quilt quilt-along?  You could challenge each other!  I invite you to share my blog post with them – the more the merrier 😊

We’ll see you tomorrow for Block 3.

Cheers,

Patti