Rhonda

Last week we discussed colors and fabrics. This week we are going to make the Boston Blocks and HSTs(half square triangle) blocks.

Over time I have developed several shortcut methods that make piecing easy and quick. I call it my cut down method.

Basically you sew fabric pieces together and then cut a square out of the center. As a miniaturist this allows me to use small pieces without actually handling small tiny pieces. The piecing just sort of happens when you cut out the pieced square.

Once you learn how to make that particular “Block” unit then you make as many as you need in the colors you need to make the quilt block you choose.
Once you have made all the quilt blocks then those become a quilt or other project you choose to make.

The size of the “Block” unit is whatever you want it to be. I am a miniaturist and I mostly use small sizes. But the method is about the piecing not about keeping it small. You can use any size template you want depending on how big you want the quilt block to be.

For this Hotpad project we are going to use the 6 x 6 grid design. This means there are 6 rows of 6 Boston Blocks per row. I like the pieced quilt block to be 6 1/2" so I can add borders to get an 8" finished Hotpad. This size uses the 1 1/2" template. If you want yours to be larger you can use a larger template. I have made them bigger and used them for a trivet under dishes and my daughter has used them as placemats.

Here is the quilt block and the layout of the "blocks"

[ATTACH=CONFIG]448207[/ATTACH].......[ATTACH=CONFIG]448208[/ATTACH]


So now we break it down and see the different "Blocks" and the colors I used.

Boston Blocks
you will need to make:

4 Blocks .......4 Blocks.. ...4 Blocks......4 Blocks.......4 Blocks
[ATTACH=CONFIG]448209[/ATTACH]...[ATTACH=CONFIG]448210[/ATTACH]...[ATTACH=CONFIG]448211[/ATTACH]...[ATTACH=CONFIG]448212[/ATTACH]...[ATTACH=CONFIG]448213[/ATTACH]

Half Square Triangle Blocks

4 Blocks....... 8 Blocks......4 Blocks
[ATTACH=CONFIG]448214[/ATTACH]...[ATTACH=CONFIG]448215[/ATTACH]...[ATTACH=CONFIG]448216[/ATTACH]