Block Party Time

I am joiningThe Block Party to The Block Party on My Quilt Story it is too much fun to miss.

I am submitting two of my original blocks.
This is my Traditional Block that I named JP's star. I also have a modern block that will  be in another post because I am having a problem with Blogger when I try to put more photos in my post.

Shown here are 2 versions of the same block or maybe that makes this 2 blocks. If traditonal blocks are ones that have many pieces that require accuracy in cutting and matching points and intersections and offer plenty of opportunity to turn things the wrong way; this is IT!   

  I designed it several years ago when I made a quilt for my grandson (JP). I wanted to use the quarter square triangle units that "spun" in a different direction when I made the units. My method of choice to make these 3 piece traingle units is to start with 2 squares and stitch on either side of a diagonal line, cut apart and trim to the exact size. Then repeat the process with a square and a HST square  I couldn't see myself sewing the 3 piece triangles units any other way because it works for me better than anything else I have tried. However, half the units spin in the wrong direction and I didn't want to end up with hundreds of left over quarter square triangle pieces.  I played with it until I came up with this block.

The orange and green version is 8 1/2 inches unfinished; the purple and green version is 14 1/2 inches unfinished. Guess which one was easier to sew.

The half square triangle squares in the opposite corners can both be omitted or one can be omitted, they produce a secondary pattern where four blocks come together.



something wrong here

 I designed the block in EQ5 and the computer I used is long gone and so is a lot of the work I did on it. When I reproduced this in EQ7 to play with the design again I remembered how versatile a block it it. There were a lot of "what if" moments. I always meant to go back to this and play some more in real fabric but this is the first time I put it together again for real. I think that maybe after I got a bed sized quilt put together I was tired of matching all the points. Since then I have started pressing all of my HST seams open and it makes a big difference. This time the blocks went together without too much fuss, that is if you don't count the time it took to fix what I did wrong. I discovered  I had switched two of the components that spun in different directions.  This was two days after I finished it and had it up on my design wall. I guess I only looked at the large green triangles when I laid it out. Oh well..........sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's not.

The picture below is a small top with 4 blocks arranged to form a circle with a pinwheel in the center.When I made my grandson's  quilt I used a different background for half of some of the blocks which made the area inside of the "circle" show up as a different colored  square, creating another layer of design. It also created another step that could go wrong but it was worth the trouble.That quilt is no longer around, it wore it out. To me that is the sign it was a good quilt