Color Splash quilt blocksColor Splash quilt blocks

I’ve named the quilt pattern.   It shall be now and forevermore be known as the Color Splash pattern.

Today I’m going to explain how to make Block A for the quilt.  But first, let’s have a refresher.  This is the quilt we’re making:

And this is Block A:

The blocks for this quilt all finish at 9” square.

I’m going to be writing this pattern (and hopefully others in the future) in the manner I go about making my own quilts.  This is a glimpse into my brain, friends.  But, if I’ve learned anything from quilting, it is that there are several ways to go about doing and making essentially the same thing. 

Block A consists of 3 different units.  They are:

I will call these the black square, the green square and the black & white half-square triangle (HST).  Easy right?

These units all have to be 3 1/2” x 3 1/2” before being sewn.  By they way, all sewing is done with a 1/4” seam.

The black and green squares will simply need to be cut at that size: 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”.

If you have fabric yardage, it’s easiest to cut a 3 1/2” wide strip from selvedge to selvedge.  Once you’ve done that, cut the strip into 3 1/2” squares. 

There are 8 Block A blocks in this quilt, and 4 black squares to a block, which makes 32 black 3 1/2” squares total for Block A.  Try saying that 3 times fast!

There is only one green 3 1/2” square needed for Block A, so 8 total for all of the Block A blocks in this quilt.

Now for the black & white HST units…

When I made my version of this quilt in blues, I wanted to use lots of my leftover fabrics that had gone into different projects to make for a very scrappy look.  I used this formula for cutting my HST units:  (finished unit size) 3 + 7/8” (constant) = 3 7/8”.  I cut 3 7/8” squares of each fabric (in the example above it would be black & white fabrics) and then cut each of the squares in half diagonally from corner to corner.  Then all you would need to do is sew together two triangles (one white and one black) along the diagonal (bias) using a 1/4” seam, press it to the darker fabric and you will end up with a 3 1/2” HST unit. 

But, if I didn’t want a scrappy look for the quilt and only wanted to use two fabrics, I would have made my HST units according to these directions I posted some time ago: making half-square triangles.  Why?  Because this method will crank out 8 HST units at a time, faster and more accurately than in the “add a 7/8 inch” method.

I hope that wasn’t confusing.  It depends on the look you are going for.  Using up scraps is sometimes more labor intensive because you’re not using a large quantity of each fabric and can’t apply time-saving techniques as easily.  Think about handling 30 different fabrics for 30 units as opposed to 2 fabrics for the same 30 units.  Get it?  Got it?  Good!

Where were we?  Oh, yes, we’ll need 4 black & white HST units for each Block A block, making 32 total needed for all of the Block A blocks.

Once I have all the units (black squares, green squares and black & white HSTs) ready to go, I lay out the units to make the block and then sew the units into rows, and then sew the rows together to complete the block.  Repeat the process for the other 7 Block A blocks. 

Also, if you make all 8 blocks at the same time, use chain-piecing whenever applicable to speed the process along.  One more thing, placement of the HST units is critical, so pay special attention to which color should be positioned where.  In this block, the white triangle within the HST units should be “pointing” inward toward the green square. 

Next up (probably next week) we’ll tackle Block B.  Hope to see you there!