Maple Leaf stems
I'm in the process of making some 9" Maple Leaf blocks. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to do the patch that forms the stem of the leaf. I've looked on line and have tried a couple of ideas from sites, but they didn't work. I don't want to applique them and I know I've seen instructions for piecing the patch using two triangles and a rectangular piece on the diagonal. I need the patch to be 3.5" when trimmed.
One site recommended cutting a 3.5' square of stem fabric and sewing a 3 1/8" square diagonally on the corner and then another on the opposite diagonal corner and trim to the 1/4" seam allowance. Not only does this waste fabric (although not a huge amount), but it came out too small.
On another site I read to cut a 3.5" background patch in half on the diagonal and sew a 1.5" X 5.5" rectangle to each of the diagonal sides. That wouldn't work because the background pieces didn't line up in order to trim to the 3.5" size.
I can't help believing there's a formula or at least some instructions out there somewhere! HELP! And thanks a lot!