OK - I've officially started to make another one similar to my avatar. I made that one in 2007-2008 and sold it. Some of the fine people on this board have written that they would like to try this.

This is not terribly difficult, but it is time consuming. Sorry, but there's no short cut for this. Cutting is the key here. Also, you will need more fabric than you would otherwise need because you look for repeating motifs and fussy cut them. So there is wasted fabric involved.
You need to have the following abilities:
1. you have a fairly accurate and consistent 1/4" seam
2. you have a steady hand with a rotary cutter
3. you are not afraid to work with half-square-triangles (HST's) and quarter-square-triangles (QST's). Those are the ONLY components in this quilt.


I'll start this tutorial with selecting your fabrics. This can take a very long time. Why? Because most LQS usually only carry a very small amount of border prints. But the good thing is that you can get started with just one or two border prints and see how it goes before you buy several more.

Look for border prints that are symmetrical. If there was an imaginary line put perpendicular to a portion of the border, what's on the left of the line will be a mirror image of what is one the right.
You can always use stripes instead of border prints. They will be symmetrical. For more interest, look for stripe prints that have some variation in the width of the stripe and variation in the distance between stripes.

What doesn't work are the border prints that have everything going in the same direction. (Like little coyboy boots, written expressions, or other novelties.)

If anyone would like to post photos of fabric that they are considering using, I would love to see them! Hopefully we can get some good ideas for fabrics by sharing them online here.

In a few days, I will add to this tutorial and focus on the cutting.

More of my fabrics are shown here.

WOW!!! :shock: I love those blocks :D:D:D
Thank you so much for this class/tute :D:D:D

Thanks Amma. Stay Tuned! I will try to put together some cutting instructions within the next few days.
After Cutting will be Assembly!

Thank you for doing this. There's a card trick quilt in my near future. :thumbup:

Thanks for sharing your talents with us, this really looks great..I will have to keep my eye out for border prints.

I'm very excited about this thread!!! Thank you for taking the time to share this!!!

Love your fabric. I will have to bookmark this.

What a great idea, and directions Thank you.

Thanks for doing this. I have some striped fabric but never knew how to use it. I'm anxious to try this.

Great blocks!!

very clever cutting and pretty results.

WOW

Beautiful! I love using stripes and can't understand why people are afraid of them or say they don't look good in quilt blocks.

When you said there is no shortcut for this, I wasn't sure whether you were referring to the use of stripes or the block itself. Actually, there is a shortcut for the block by Eleanor Burns. The pattern is called Winning Hand. I've made two of them and they are much easier than the Card Trick method:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-29503-1.htm

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-29504-1.htm

I believe she was referring to the use of the stripes. I saw your card trick quilts and they were beautiful! However, I couldn't figure out how you would get the square effect of the stripes using Eleanor Burns method.

Yes, I think that's probably true. But for people simply interested in the block, there is a simpler way.

Thank you. I love the idea of the border panel.

Beautiful!

This is so cool! My mom collects border prints. I will have to show her this.

thanks for the tutorial!

Thank you so much for doing this tutorial. I have been collecting border prints every since I saw your quilt. I am really excited to get started.

LOVE IT !!

WOW! Thank you so much. They are beautifully written.

Jennie, those fabrics are just so-o-o ??? WOW! Will bookmark this so I can pore over it soon! Congratulations on the tut!

AWSOME!!!!sorry, I had to shout. I love it.

Wow, this really looks neat. Can't wait to see the rest of tutorial. Thanks for sharing. Sally

thanks!!! I'm going to start buying border prints, too!!!!

Oh man oh man.. those are beautiful.. I will be watching.. What a great idea.. thanks.

Beautiful fabrics! Just can't go wrong with Ginny Beyer. I am looking forward to seeing the finished quilt.

You are correct Bistanbro: There is an easy method for doing the card trick block. Eleanor Burns has done fabulous work to show quilters how to maximize fabric, strip piece, and produce great quilts in shorter periods of time.

Sorry for not being more clear. If you want your card tricks blocks to appear as if each one has a mitered border by using stripes, then there isn't an easy way except to fussy cut.

More Tips for fabric selection:

I apologize for those who are ready to cut. I came across some tips while working on this that might prove helpful as you continue to select your fabrics.
I ordered some fabric last week online and thought it might be good for my quilt. Once I received it, however, as pretty and high quality as it was, I knew right away that I wouldn't be able to use this particular fabric to make a striped card trick block. The reason was only because the design wasn't symmetrical. My loss is your gain. I decided to cut into it anyway as a sacrificial piece.

Flowers aren't symmetrical in nature, and they most usually are not symetrical in border prints. As it should be.

In the pictures, you will see the fabric before being cut, and then examples of two HST's that were cut from it.

Folks, does anybody have any fabric in this category that I can ogle? I want to see yours too!

What size are your triangles cut from?

This is very pretty fabric. If it doesn't work for the card trick blocks would something like this work in a OBW I hope to do one of those and a card trick quilt sometime, just looking for the right fabrics.

:-)

I am so looking forward to see how you cut this. I have only a few stripped fabrics but want to make a few blocks to get me going. Be sure and say the size of each piece cut. Thank you for doing this.

Cutting instructions:

I used blue template plastic to make two templates.
The first HST is from a 4 7/8 square of plastic, cut once on the diagonal. This is labeled as A.

the first QST is from a 5 1/4 square of plastic, cut twice on the diagonal. This is labeled as B.

I came up with a good system to cut my "A" units without the plastic template, because I was either slicing the edges off it, or it was slipping. So I used the corner of a ruler that had a line to mark the center of the corner (a 45 degree line) and used masking tape placed carefully at the 4 7/8 marks -see photo.

Let's start with the zigzag green.

The stripes are easiest. Place your ruler or template along the bottom edge of a stripe. You can determine which stripe to use as your base line. Position your ruler or template so you only have to make two cuts.

You will need four identical units. In some cases, you can simply turn your fabric around, but check the pattern of the fabric carefully. Sometimes the stripes have colorways that make this not possible. That is actually the case of my red fabric which I will explain after we finish with the green fabric.

Now, using one HST that you have cut, place it on the fabric, perpendicular to the stripe. Move it around on the fabric until it lines up and makes a corner.

Place template B here.

Place your ruler over the template - cut off excess fabric to the right.

Place your ruler along the edge of template B.

Slide the template out of the way, and make this cut.