Block 38

Sorry everyone! I completely lost track of time and days last week.

Our next block is fairly simple and does not need to be paper pieced. (That should be a relief for those of you not liking the paper piecing)

Here is our lineup of pieces ready and waiting to become a block. For the square-in-a-square blocks I cut squares for both the centre square and the corner triangles. I use this method whenever the centre square does not work out to a nice measurement but the finished square does.

First elements are the 5 square-in-a-square blocks and the stripes. Now that these elements are laid out, can you see the two 9-patches?

The centre has been put together as a 9-patch.

Now the remainder, also put together as a 9-patch.

Our next block is finished. Tada!

Block 56

We're having quite the run of paper pieced blocks lately. I hope everyone else is as thrilled as Kristie. I realized that I'm assuming that everyone knows how to foundation paper piece. Is this true? Would anyone like a tutorial?

For the centre, I created an slightly over sized pinwheel block and used that as one unit for the paper piecing. Here are all the individual pieces paper pieces and ready for assembly.

First the centre is pieced together.

Next we're back to our friend the 9-patch.

And finally our old friend the square in a square.

And all these familiar elements come together to make up our next block.

Block 79

Well, after last week's challenge, it's time for a break.

The centre block on this one is a 4 patch. I cut the smaller squares a little larger, created the 4 patches and then cut them to the correct size. You'll also notice in the border, I paper pieced. The measurements were a little funny, so it was easier to paper piece them.

After the centre 4 patch has been put together, you can assemble things just like a regular 9 patch.

Then I cut the outer triangles and created the square in the square block. I cut the triangles a little big and then trimmed the whole block down to size.

Another block done and we're on a roll for the new year.

Block 49

Okay, here is our first tough one. There are enough pieces that I didn't want to count them. :)

There are lots of 1/2 square triangles in this one, unfortunately they're not all square and they're not nice measurements to work out, so paper piecing it is.

I'm not sure, if you can see it in the picture below, but I numbered the columns A, B, C, etc in addition to numbering the paper piecing order. I needed to to keep track of them when putting things together. I also labeled each piece (L)ight, (M)edium, and (D)ark so I knew what fabric to put where. (It's a little tough when everything is all sliced apart)

After the prep, it's all easy. Here everything is paper pieced, trimmed, and ready to go. Unfortunately, I was on such a role that I forgot to take pictures of the intermediary steps.

I first sewed the centre stripes together to make the centre square. Then I removed the paper and pressed everything. Then I added the corners, just like I would for a square in a square block.

And now we have our first tough block done. Yeah!!