One of the fun and simple pleasures in quilting is finding two fabrics that like each other. It's also fairly simple to cut a full 2.5 inch strip from each and sew them together. And once you do that, cutting that strip into 2.5 inch hunks seems like a natural next step.
It's natural because you sew those hunks together and you find yourself with 8 four patches plus change. A simple but slightly unusual next step is to line these up with opposite patches facing each other and then sewing a quarter inch seam around the edges.
Next, if you slice those sewn pairs into quarters along the diagonal (the way my mother cut my sandwiches!), you find yourself with four hourglass blocks...sixteen in total. And at no point in time did you come near that dreaded half-square triangle (HST). Of course, the obvious next step is to sew these sixteen hourglasses in pairs, then foursies, then eightsies, and then a single block.
At this point, you are well on your way to making the quilt "Shards" in Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in an English Village. I changed things up a bit...given I am not about to make one hour glass out of TWO HSTs. That is crazy behavior. They also have a block made from 25 hour glass blocks, but I went with 16 because that is what came out using two 2.5 inch strips. The final block is 9.75 inches unfinished.
Then this morning I stopped by Kathy's Quilts to see what dangerous kinds of quilting behaviors she might be engaging in...and there she is working with hour glass blocks about the size of a virus. And while I was reading her blog, there was a feline diversion, and the iPad slipped in my hands and sent me to a post about Clarissa's quilt...a quilt based on blocks with 36 hour glass blocks! Definitely a crazy town kind of quilt that I would never ever ever never go near...
7 comments:
So she said ... But what does the cat say, she sent you there in the first place! Likely her version of karma for her last vet visit.
All so lovely Sally. I have noted this post to remember your process here as it is far easier than the HST's I normally make. Thanks for sharing.
Yeah, Clarissa keeps trying to lead me off the Path of Sanity too...
Wow, those blocks are looking awesome! The thought of hourglass blocks used to give me hives. But I could (and just might) get on board with your method. Yes, I realize you didn’t dream it up, but still.
Great post today, Sally. You're on a roll with the great writing (and process). I have previously loved HST but now you're making me question that. I always did them the easy way of stitching two squares together on a diagonal and cutting down the middle of two stitched lines. I must at least give your method a try.
Oh my - you've started something now! I'll be making a batch of these and then one thing will lead to another...
Oh, my. I'm allergic to hourglass blocks, never having made one that turned out properly. Not saying I'll try your method, but maybe someday if I have nothing else to do.
Pat
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