QCQAL Block #5 with templates!!

I'm behind, no, I'm caught up!!  Intended to post this last week -- things got crazy and so it got delayed (along with a few other things).  The readers over at Little Bunny Quilts voted the most for Broken Dishes and not only is it a great scrap block, it's an easy block to cut and piece.

 

For a minute, I thought I would just do the 12" block.  But once I got started cutting, it wasn't going to take that much longer to make the 6" one, too -- though I did make it a slightly different layout as I didn't have the energy to cut 1" HST's.  Just needed one template for each block -- using Set B for the 12" block and Set A for the 6" block!

I layered 4 strips to cut 2 pairs of triangles -- bottom strip is right side up; second strip (background) is right side down; third strip (background) is right side up; and fourth strip is right side down. 

That way I don't have to match up anything -- just pick up a pair and stitch them together.

Soon they were stitched and pressed, ready to lay out for assembly.

I laid out the "4-patches" and then proceeded to chain piece them together.

By keeping the chain intact until after I've pressed, it save me some time getting the pairs to the next stitching step.

I only clip every other chain and keep the pairs attached -- helps me remember which side to stitch because I can stitch either side of the pairs, but only one side is right!!

Auditioning the final layout -- nope!! 

I like the balance of having the two warm colors (yellow & orange) in opposite corners of the blocks

I used Bonnie Hunter's little trick for pressing the center seams so no matter which way I turn a unit, the seams will be opposing where the units are joined.

And here's the 12" block -- once again I arranged the warm and cool colors to balance the block (in my opinion).  What's that?  The yellow got twisted -- good grief!  I'll probably fix it or it will make me crazy.

Working on this reminded me of a table runner I made years ago when teaching a color class.  It's one of my favorite pieces and is a permanent fixture on the side table in my dining room.  The objective of the exercise was to use as many prints as possible while maintaining a specific color scheme.  Can you tell what mine was?

Now I can link up to the QCQAL Block Party #5 and see what everyone else made and cross of one of my little goals for May!!

 

If you are headed for Quilt Market in Pittsburgh this weekend, I'll giving a 30 minute presentation during Schoolhouse on Thursday (1:20 p.m.) about my DVD workshop, Set-In Piecing Simplified and I'll be hanging out in the Michell Marketing booth most of the day on Friday!  Stop by and say "hello"!

 

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com