I got the card trick pattern on line at About.com quilting for free and it calls for a finished block at 9". I am trying to use my scraps, but the pattern calls for 2 different sized squares at 4 1/2" and 3 7/8" and some of the fabric scraps are not that big. Is it worth making a down-sized card trick block with such small pieces? Or am I better off using this pattern as is with yardage? I thought this would be ideal for my scraps and wanted to balance the color pallette possiblly using four smaller blocks into one larger block and dividing it with sashes. I've never made this block before and it looks fairly easy, but I am not good at down-sizing blocks and trying to figure out that detail.

Maybe someone on the board who makes tiny sized quilts can address this issue.

Any suggestions, or should I just stick with the pattern the way it is?

do you know how to draft patterns. Card Trick should be an easy one to do. and certainly cut it down to size to use your scraps.

You should be able to make it at 6" with little fuss but I'm wondering about your scrap pile now. If you don't have enough to make the blocks at 9"--I don't know how you'll have enough scraps to make enough smaller blocks to make a quilt.

My suggestion would be to just cut out the size squares you need from all your scraps and make the blocks with what you've got then put them away for awhile until you accumulate some more scraps. If you want to finish quicker, start hitting rummage sales & thrift shops for cheap cotton clothing you can cut into scraps.

Ok, I looked up the instructions you have and to make it in 6" blocks instead of 9" is very simple.

Change all the 3-7/8" cuts to 2-7/8" cuts and all the 4-1/4" to 3-1/4". The 9-1/2" sashing strips should also be changed to 6-1/2". You'll need to make approximately 33% (10-12) more blocks at the 6" size and you'll need more fabric for the sashing since having more blocks and seems will take up some of it but not too much more probably.

Here are templates for a 6" block :D:D:D

It sounds to me like the pattern would then want you to cut those squares in half on the diagonal and maybe even into fourths. You can still easily do the 9" block and use your scraps. Just measure what size a completed triangle is and see if that is small enough for your scraps! Cut it out in paper and use the paper as a template for the scraps where the piece isn't quite big enough for the square but ample size for the triangle acheived in the second cut.

I have plenty of scraps all different sizes and I thought the colors would be a nice variety and it would use up the scraps.

Thanks for the templates.

Thank you so much for the measurements. I will go thru my stash and make sure all the colors look balanced. I'm sure I can make it completely with my scraps and just use yardage for the borders. Will post as I go.

I am sorry :oops: I misread your original block size :oops:

Here are templates for a 9 in block :D:D:D