This block has become my new favorite for a quilt. I'm mainly making quilts for Blankets of Hope, our church's quilting group, but you could make more blocks to make it any size you wanted.
I saw the quilt in a magazine and took a picture of it. Sorry but I don't remember which magazine or what the date of it was. I decided to make the sashing part of the block and then just saw the blocks together. I had several prints with roosters and chickens that had been donated to the group and only had to hunt for a print for the small squares. I couldn't believe when I discovered the brown print of chicken feet in my friend Sandi's stash. It just worked out perfectly.
In this post I am going to show you how easily the block goes together. You can decide how many blocks you need for the quilt you are making, but this is what my finished quilt looked like.
This picture shows the block before they pieces were sewed together.
The large red square is a cut 5.5 inch square. The green strips are cut 5.5 inches long and 3 inches wide. If you are using a directional print, you may have to cut some of the strips across the width of the fabric and some on the length of the fabric. The brown squares are cut 3 inch square. The light brown (which is actually the sashing on the finished quilt) is cut 3 x 8 inches. You may also have to cut half differently if you are using a directional print.
This next picture shows you the order in which you sew the strips.
Sew 1 and 2 together...
and press seam toward 2...
then sew pieces 3 and 4 together and press toward 3...
Now you are ready to sew 1-2 and 3-4 together nesting the seams together... and press toward 3-4
Now sew piece 6 to the other side of 2-4 and press the seam toward 2-4.
So far this is what the block looks like...
The next seam is made with sewing pieces 7 and 8 together. This seam is pressed toward 8.
You have finished the block when you sew 7-8 to the top of the block (3-4-6) nesting the seams
and pressing toward the bottom of the block or the top (What? that's confusing...just keep reading below...)
You have now finished the block and the back will look like this...
BUT WAIT A MINUTE...
When you start to sew the blocks together, you will discover that every other block needs the last seam pressed the opposite direction to be able to nest the seams! I usually have my quilt blocks on my design wall (a piece of flannel or felt hanging on my wall) and sew the blocks together in strips. It didn't take me long to realize as I started sewing the strips together that I needed to repress the last seam. It was an easy fix!
I sewed 4 blocks across and made 5 strips.
If you are wondering, this is what the block looks like without the sashing.
I messed up on a quilt I was making for one of my granddaughters several years ago because I made all the sashing with cornerstones and then when I went to pin it on the strips I had made, the sashing didn't fit. WHY? Because I had followed the directions in the magazine and cut the pieces the length they were supposed to be. Problem was after my sewing and pressing the seams in the block, my blocks were smaller than what they were "supposed to be". So the sashing with the cornerstones didn't match up with the strip of blocks with a short sashing in between each block. That was a hard lesson to learn, but now I trim down my blocks before I sew any sashing on or even sew them together. OR you can just make the sashing part of the block as I did with this block and you only have to trim down the blocks before you sew them together.
I hope you will try my way and as always with my tutorials, if you have any questions, please ask as a comment below.
I saw the quilt in a magazine and took a picture of it. Sorry but I don't remember which magazine or what the date of it was. I decided to make the sashing part of the block and then just saw the blocks together. I had several prints with roosters and chickens that had been donated to the group and only had to hunt for a print for the small squares. I couldn't believe when I discovered the brown print of chicken feet in my friend Sandi's stash. It just worked out perfectly.
In this post I am going to show you how easily the block goes together. You can decide how many blocks you need for the quilt you are making, but this is what my finished quilt looked like.
The large red square is a cut 5.5 inch square. The green strips are cut 5.5 inches long and 3 inches wide. If you are using a directional print, you may have to cut some of the strips across the width of the fabric and some on the length of the fabric. The brown squares are cut 3 inch square. The light brown (which is actually the sashing on the finished quilt) is cut 3 x 8 inches. You may also have to cut half differently if you are using a directional print.
BUT WAIT A MINUTE...
When you start to sew the blocks together, you will discover that every other block needs the last seam pressed the opposite direction to be able to nest the seams! I usually have my quilt blocks on my design wall (a piece of flannel or felt hanging on my wall) and sew the blocks together in strips. It didn't take me long to realize as I started sewing the strips together that I needed to repress the last seam. It was an easy fix!
I sewed 4 blocks across and made 5 strips.
I messed up on a quilt I was making for one of my granddaughters several years ago because I made all the sashing with cornerstones and then when I went to pin it on the strips I had made, the sashing didn't fit. WHY? Because I had followed the directions in the magazine and cut the pieces the length they were supposed to be. Problem was after my sewing and pressing the seams in the block, my blocks were smaller than what they were "supposed to be". So the sashing with the cornerstones didn't match up with the strip of blocks with a short sashing in between each block. That was a hard lesson to learn, but now I trim down my blocks before I sew any sashing on or even sew them together. OR you can just make the sashing part of the block as I did with this block and you only have to trim down the blocks before you sew them together.
I hope you will try my way and as always with my tutorials, if you have any questions, please ask as a comment below.
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