Daylesewblessed

I am starting the cutest quilt, and it uses a "square in a square" block. The instructions say to start with a 4.75" square and sew a 3 and 7/8" triangle to each side. So I think that means that I would be sewing the bias edge of a triangle to each side of the square, which is cut on the straight grain. The goal is to end up with a block that is 6.5" square, and the block would not have any bias edges when finished.

Are there any tips that I should know before starting this process? It seems to me that I should start out with triangles a bit larger, so that I can trim the whole block down to 6.5". Or if my triangles are cut accurately and the seams are 1/4", can I count on the block coming out accurately? Because of the bias, should I sew with the triangle on top of the square or the square on top of the triangle? Would you recommend starching the triangle pieces before sewing?

The left side of the picture in my post shows one of three different sets of these "square in a square" blocks. I will need to make 30 altogether. The right side of my picture shows a small portion of the quilt, but you can see how the "square in a square" block works in. I think this will be a fun quilt to make -- it is simpler than it looks, with each of the blocks being 6.5". My focus fabric is a black and white cow outline print with primary color cows. The "square in a square" is a black and white cowhide print with red and blue bandana corners.

Thanks for any tips you can give me.

Dayle