Hello! It's just noon on Sunday and I'm stitching happily while watching Monarch of the Glen. It's a wonderful BBC show that is lots of fun to watch. I'm on Season 3 and it just gets better and better. The scenery is gorgeous too. We are having an Instagram giveaway right now for 4 charm packs from Hello Darling (just go to Instagram and type in @44thstreetfabric to enter). Someone asked me what you could do with a charm pack. Here's one thing that I like to do. Just sew 4 charms together in a 4 patch. I use spray starch to help prevent stretching of bias edges. I press each set of 2 squares in opposite directions and then press the center seam open so it lays nice and flat.
I have a 9.5" Omnigrid square ruler but any square ruler will do. I
don't know if you can see but there is a diagonal yellow line running
right down the middle of the ruler. I center that line on the block and
put the tip of the ruler on the top center seam.
Make sure that the edges of the ruler are on the center seam edges at the sides. Then cut off the corners.
Turn the square over and line up the center diagonal line on the ruler again, making sure that the ruler touches the corners of the block.
Then make your second trim.
Line up the diagonal line on the ruler on the block and see how close it is to 6.5". If it is off by a smidge, square it up now, always keeping the diagonal center line of the ruler on the block. Sewing 4 of these together makes a 12.5" block that you can use however you want.
And you have the triangles left over to stitch together into 20 half-square triangles! Trim the half square triangles to 4" x 4".
There are 40 charm squares in the Hello Darling charm packs so you can make 10 squares from one pack. Alternating with the triangle squares, you can make a lovely table runner from just one charm pack. I hope you like this little tutorial. If you don't have any charm squares, we have them in the shop. I have other fun things I do with charm squares that I'll share here later. Happy Sunday! XO from Bev
Charms are the most forgotten precut. I love working with them and adding yardage for a scrappy quilt. Funny I never thought of making an hour glass block that way, thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeletenew way to do that , thanks
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen an hour glass block made this way. Great idea and also get a lot of bonus HST. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteDang! That is so smart! Why can't I think of these things? I love this idea and will use it for now on!! Thanks!
ReplyDelete