13th block

Did you notice that I took a week off?  Sorry, things were crazy.  But, back to it-and we are gettting to the point where the end is in sight.  First of all count your blocks.  You should have 24 blocks for the center of the quilt and have started some of the edge checkerboard blocks.  So, You should only need to make one of these blocks.  I chose to make 2 of them and choose another block to leave out.  Anyway, for the center section of the large quilt, you will need a total of 25 blocks that measure 12 1/2  inches square, unfinished. For the smaller quilt, you need a total of 16 blocks for the center section.  So, here is the last block...

For one of these blocks you will need the following:
Brown- 4 rectangles 6 1/2 X 3 1/2
             4 squares 3 7/8 square- two of these will be CUT on the diagonal, the other two just draw a diagonal line.
Blue- One Square for the middle 4 3/4 square
          2 squares 3 7/8
Gold/neutral-8 square 3 1/2 square-draw a diagonal line on the back of each one. 

Here's the pieces all ready to sew, along with the all important coffee cup-though it is filled with green tea rather than coffee-trying to replace some of my bad habits.

The star points are made as flying geese blocks.  Place a gold square with a brown rectangle and sew on the line.  Trim, press open, sew another square on the opposite corner and repeat the steps.

Match a blue 3 7/8 inch square with a brown one and sew on each side of the line.  Cut apart, press open, repeat once for a total of 4 half square patches.

Take the brown triangles that resulted from cutting two squares on the diagonal and sew one to opposite sides of the larger blue square, press open and then sew the other two on opposite sides, press open.

Lay out the pieces so they look like this.  Sew into 3 rows and then sew the rows together.  The seams start to get bulky here and I press them open to prevent this.  You can only press seams open if you will be using a high quality batting that does not "beard".

Now you need to go make some more of these out of 2 1/2 inch strips.  If you are making the large quilt, you will need 40 of these blocks.  see the last post for more information.

Next week we will make corner blocks and will begin constructing the quilt.  If you want to get started...

You will need a neutral fabric for the lattice-For the larger quilt: 60 pieces that measure 2 1/2 X 12 1/2 and a brown- 36 square that measure 2 1/2 inches.  You will need a border.  I am planning on using brown, that will measure 4 1/2 inches wide and you need about 153 inches in length.