Hi everyone, welcome to Block 11 of the Beginner’s Quilt-Along (QAL). If you’re new here, you can join the QAL at any time. Sew at your own pace, the tutorials will be available indefinitely. See the main Beginner’s QAL page for more information and additional links.

Pat Sloan is quilting along with us too. She’s making three sets of blocks using her gorgeous Eat Your Fruits and Veggies fabrics. Check out Pat’s blocks on her blog.

Don’t forget to upload your completed block to the Flickr group each week for a chance to win prizes. Winners are chosen randomly from the completed blocks submitted by 2:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. Check the UPDATED Sponsors and Prizes page to see all the goodies.

Block 11 – Read Books all Summer

This week’s block is Read Books all Summer. It has five quarter square triangle (QST) units and four squares. The QST unit is often referred to as an hour glass block. Here’s a scrappy hour glass quilt I made for my sister a few years ago:

A note about block colours: I chose to represent this block in 3 colours; however, you could make your QST units scrappy if you wish.

Beginner’s Lesson: Quarter Square Triangles

You may notice that there are three different sets of photos for this tutorial. My apologies, as the camera seems to have eaten some of my photos and I had to reshoot them using different fabrics.

Making QST units is similar to what we’ve been doing for our HST units. We start with larger squares, draw diagonal lines, sew 1/4″ on both sides of that line, press, cut apart and trim.

To determine the starting square size, the math for QSTs is unit finished size + 1.25″. However, I prefer more wiggle room and like to trim my units to the exact size I need, so I add 1.5″ to the finished size. For our block, that’s 4″ + 1.5″ = 5.5″. Each pair of squares will yield two QST units.

Follow the same steps we’ve been doing for our HSTs. Layer your two squares right sides together. On the back of one of the squares, draw a diagonal line corner to corner and stitch 1/4″ away from that line on both sides. Press to set your seams and cut your HSTs in half. When you open up your HST units, be sure to press both pairs toward the same fabric.

Layer your two HST units right sides together, with your fabrics on opposite sides. Run your finger along the middle seam to ensure that the two units are nested together nicely. They should fit nice and snug.

Draw a diagonal line, corner to corner, in the opposite direction of the first line. Stitch 1/4″ from that centre line.

Press your block, then take a peek to make sure your intersections look good.

Cut in half. You now have two QST units.

To press these units, I like to use a trick I first learned from Billie Lauder. If you ever have an opportunity to attend a class or lecture with her, do so. She’s a riot. Ok, back to the trick. Our QST unit is considered a four-patch, because it has four seams that meet together. In order to have a nice flat block, we’ll spiral the seams. This is what it looks like when we’re done:

Here’s a video that shows how it’s done:

Unfortunately, that video makes is sound more confusing than it really is. What you want to do is lay your block down on your ironing board, and lightly push the seams in opposite directions. The center section should open up and form that cute four patch in the centre.

It might take a bit of practice, but once you get it to work, you’ll see how valuable this technique is for other units too. Once you have the seams going in the directions you want, finger press your unit, then carefully press from the back with the iron. Turn your block over and press from the front.

Trim and square up your units to the unfinished size, in our case 4.5″. On the first cut, line up the diagonal line on your ruler with your block, with extra fabric to be trimmed on all four sides. Trim the right side and top of your block.

When you make the second cut, you’ll line up the two sides you just cut at your 4.5″ mark on your ruler plus the diagonal line in the centre. Trim.

In Block 6, I featured June Tailor’s Perfect Half-Square & Quarter-Square Triangles Ruler. I prefer to use this ruler for trimming QSTs as it makes lining up the two diagonal lines very easy. I used this ruler exclusively for the hour glass quilt I featured above. Here’s a video for this ruler.

Here’s a very short video on making quarter square triangles:

I’m curious, do you spiral your four patch seams? Let me know in the comments, please.

Tutorial: Block 11 – Read Books all Summer

You need:

(4) 4.5" squares light grey
(3) 5.5" squares black
(3) 5.5" squares white

In my photo, light grey is the blue swirl, black is the purple swirl and white is the purple flower.

Piecing the block:

With the 5.5" squares, create six hour glass/QST units following the tutorial above. Be sure to trim your units accurately to 4.5″ square. You’ll only use five of the six created.

Lay out your units in order following the block diagram.

Stitch your units together in three rows. For rows 1 and 3, press the seams toward the centre block. For the middle row, press the seams away from the centre unit.

Sew rows 1 and 2 together, pinning at the seams and ends to keep things aligned nicely. Press towards row 2. Then stitch row 3 and press towards row 2.

Your completed block should be 12.5″:

Final pressing:

Download this week’s tutorial here: Beginner’s Quilt-Along – Block 11

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments. Don’t forget to share your completed block in the Flickr group by next Wednesday, August 22nd at 2:00 p.m. for a chance to win this week’s prizes featured below.

Prizes for this Week

We have two prizes to give-away this week.

We have a lovely 10 Little Things charm pack from Moda to give-away:

The Fat Quarter Shop have donated a set of their new Little P’s patterns. These quick and easy patterns are perfect for the beginner quilter.

Block 10 Winners

The winner of the set of Little P’s patterns donated by the Fat Quarter Shop is:

waglets

The two winners of the Bloc-Loc Rulers that I featured in Block 10 are:

S1Jewett

Carla In Tucson

If you’re a winner, please check your photo on Flickr for instructions. I have not heard from wenine9 who won last week. Please email me.