The disappearing 4 patch is fun and its a lot easier to make than it looks. Its a snap to put together. Besides determining how many blocks you need for the width and length of your quilt there's hardly any math involved - yay! And because you only need 5" squares to make this its perfect for using up all those little charm packs you've been collecting. You'll need two 5" squares of focus fabric and two 5" squares of contrast fabric sewn together to make a 4 patch.
They, meaning the quilt goddesses from another dimension, tell you to always press toward the dark. This is true and you'll want to start out doing just that. However, you'll be flipping things around and will probably need to re-press a few seams here and there.
I've been a little lazy and I use a quarter inch foot on my machine that isn't exactly a quarter inch. Cringe, I know. But oh well. Instead I chose to compensate for this inaccuracy by trimming my blocks down to 9". A little washi tape on my ruler helps the measuring phase zip right by. Using the tape as a visual marker eliminates your eye from having to count the marks on the ruler for each block . With a little patience this extra trimming step wouldn't have been necessary, but I'm not too worried about it at the moment. I'm just testing out a pattern. My daughter wants to make her own quilt. I just wanted to see if this was something that would interest her. Like my mother, she's a visual creature.
If you are going to make a quilt like the one pictured at the beginning of this post you are going to need two sets of blocks. The focus fabrics will need to be in opposite corners for each set.
Now here's the fun part. Lay your block on a cutting mat and line up the block with 1 inch marking lines following your vertical and horizontal seams. You will only need to make 4 cuts, Using the measuring lines as your guide, cut 1" to the left and 1" to the right of your vertical seam as well as 1" above and 1" below the horizontal seam.
Leaving the 4 corners and the center piece in place, take the two pieces on the outside of the horizontal (middle) row...
and switch sides.
(oops. I accidentally deleted that photo)
Repeat that step for the two outer pieces in the vertical column in the middle.
I deleted that photo, too. sorry. But. your pieces, all laid out, should look like this:
That's it. That's all the switching and cutting you need. You can follow your favorite chain piecing method but essentially the pieces will be sewn into rows then the rows into a block.
These blocks will be sewn into bigger rows and those rows will become a quilt.
My daughter chose a pretty floral print for her quilt. I can't wait 'till she gets started. There will be more on that in a future post. But, in the mean time, if you have a quilt made with the disappearing 4 patch, I'd love to see it- just post a link in the comments. Thanks for stopping by!
No comments:
Post a Comment