Tutorial for making 4” economy (thrift) blocks

I’m working on my 4” blocks for the #scrappymeetsthriftchallenge that I’m doing on Instagram. If you would like to join us, follow Taryn of @reproquiltlover and sign up. She’ll send you all the info. You’ll get foundation paper patterns that work for 3 sizes. I chose the largest. The main reason was, I didn’t want to foundation piece and this acrylic template gave me the same size. 

I thought I would put together a demo of sorts. I use the SQUARE ON SQUARE TRIM TOOL from creative grids. They have a video online … but I thought this might help too.

I use the corner window (see above) to fussy cut a 2-1/2” square for my center. I have a lot of cute 30s and vintage fabrics that I’d like to use, but you could just cut with any regular 2-1/2 ruler.

I’m making what the trim tool calls the “A” block. This is for the 4” block. The tool also makes a 8”. There’s a little area on the trim tool that tells me what size to cut squares, then these are sub cut on a 45 degree angle.

So these are the triangles for round one or the first border of your center square. They are oversized and will be trimmed after I stitch them to the center.

First triangle attached, pressed, and roughly trimmed. I trim away the excess triangle piece that’s hanging past my center square, as I go.

Attach the pieces in the order you like. I do top, bottom, side and side.

Now give it a spray and a good press so it’s nice and flat before trimming.

Using the trim tool, center the lines of A-1 over your center block like above. If it doesn’t line up perfectly, that’s okay. Center the best you can, then trim the two overhanging side. 

Now flip the block, recenter it on A-1, and trim the two remaining sides.

You have a perfect “triangle border” on your center. Now pick out a second fabric. I like to use something that matches but contrasts a bit. 

Here is a bunch of my blocks with round one on them so I’m matching up fabrics for the next set.

I’m trying to use only scraps because but sometimes (like that brown one) I just can’t find a scrap that works. That’s fine. I’ll dig through my larger pieces of fabric..pretty is more important than sticking to the rules 🤫

For this block I had scraps that would work just fine. The trim tool says to cut (2) 3-1/2” squares then cut in half.

I have a 3-1/2” template with a diagonal line so I’m lining up the fabric straight edge with the 45 degree line on the ruler and cutting triangles that way. 

NOTE: I’ve found that you can also cut a 5” charm on the diagonal, twice, to get 4 triangles that work. Those will have bias edges though, so I give them a heavy dose of spray starch to keep them square.

SO…back to this…using half the square ruler gives me the same size triangle as if I had used the whole square and sub cut it. 

The other two scraps will work because they were on a different block that I did an OOPs 😬 on. I saved these two, ruined two others. I set the pieces on my ironing pad, next to my machine so that I don’t make a mistake in how I want them arranged.

I put the matching pieces across from each other.

Sew them on, spray, and press.

Now I’m ready for the final two cuts. 

This time, line up the first border of triangles with A-2. Double check that you are lining this up correctly…my earlier OOPs was from improperly lining up the template (and not having my coffee b4 cutting anything 🤣)

Trim the two sides.

Then the two remaining sides.

Your block is finished!

Now, this might just be me but I like to cut the remaining scraps from making that block, into sizes I save. I keep 1-1/2” squares in a tin for making scrappy nine patches.

I am getting quite a collection so another 9 patch scrap quilt is probably in my future.

This is the last one I did…just needs quilting 🫣

Working on 3 or 4 quilts at once

It's no surprise to anyone that knows me that I'm working on multiple quilts. I get bored VERY easily. I love to spend a little time on each quilt every day.

I'm currently working on piecing my Pyramid quilt, basting a quilt for a grandniece, hand quilting on Lisa's quilt and just finishing up a vintage looking quilt that uses old fabrics.

This is Lisa's. It's all hand pieced (epp). It took me over 7 years to piece so I felt it needed to be hand quilted. ****** Below are some of my vintage fabrics that were cut up for the vintage-style quilt. I wanted all "older" fabrics so that I would get a true vintage feel.

This would be cute done with all 30's reproductions or all civil wars style fabrics, or anything bright...but I think using a variety of old fabrics gives it an olf look. It looks like many that I see in antique stores. Anyways, if you'd like to stitch one up, this is what I did: Cut: (240) 4" sqs from assorted fabrics (16) 3-1/2" x 18" from solid blue for vertical sashing (15) 3-1/2" x 14-1/2" from solid blue for horizontal sashing (20) 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" red print for cornerstones Layout 20 squares in a 4x5 grid. Sew 4 squares per row...5 rows per block. Make 12 blocks. Sash blocks using blue strips and red cornerstones. Quilt will finish at 65"x 71-1/2"

These blocks were easier to put together if they were laid out next to my machine. I could have just randomly grabbed pieces but I wanted to alternate darker and lighter or busier with plainer pieces. It didnt always work out that way but I'm happy enough with the results.

Started a new star quilt

So I started another quilt. It was an accident... really...not planned at all.

Remember those vintage scraps and old blocks that I was organizing? I remade the friendship star blocks and put the 16 of them together as a future quilt center. Well, I was thinking about it at night and thought, "what if I cut up all the scraps that matched the stars and surrounded my center with a huge star.
This was about midnight...couldn't sleep. I pulled out my laptop with my EQuilter program and started playing with ideas.
Long story short... About 3am I finished my design and in the morning I wanted to test out one block. Just to see if I liked it. And I haven't stopped. May as well finish it at this point.
So the plan is to make one more border of star points. The quilt will be 72" sq, a good size I think.

These are some of the vintage fabrics I tucked into the star points. This stripe above and the brown print below, are early 1900's fabrics!

This stripe with the flowers is 50's I think (36" wide). It's a really nice, crisp cotton.

I'm still organizing the vintage scraps too. The ones that don't make it into this star quilt will go into my next one. THAT quilt needs to wait! No more starts allowed!

Start of a vintage style quilt

Here I go again....off on a tangent! I'm blaming my daughter for this... She wanted to borrow som shirting pieces and as I was digging through the box I found two small 9 patches. These were just small pretty scraps that I put together YEARS ago for no real reason than that I thought they looked nice together. They were then packed away and forgotten.

Well, once I found them I just couldn't stop thinking that they would be great in a vintage type quilt. Digging through my old quilt magazines, I came across a perfect pattern... The double 9 patch or Irish chain.

The pink is old....from the 80s. It was at the bottom of my solids tote and I'm crossing my fingers that it will be enough to do a twin size quilt.  The scraps for the small 9 patches are getting cut from shirts, old blocks (very old!) and old calicoes. These blocks above are very vintage.... If they were salvageable I would use them as is in a quilt but they have stains and holes. 

This star quilt top was a mess....puckered...torn...stained ....so again CHOP, CHOP!

These pieces were cut from those old blocks... They look so much neater.

I'm stitching them inti 3" 9-patches and not worrying if they are a little wonky. They'll just look that much more vintage :)

Seven Double 9-Patch blocks are done...I need at least 25 but hoping to get 32 made. I'll be alternating with the pink (hopefully!).  There won't be a border on this quilt unless I decide on a very small one. Got to keep it looking old.