February 2012 BOM

As promised, it's time for February block. Everyone only associates February with Valentine's day, but, as those of us who grew up in the 50's and 60's know, it's also a couple of president's birthdays. Who else remembers getting at least one of those days as a holiday at school?

So in honor of the birthday of the father of our country (February 22nd), I chose to use Martha Washington's block. And because it's close to Valentine's day, I wrote it up using red and pink as the outer colors of the star. But, this BOM is YOUR quilt, done in your colors, so you choose what you want to do!

Martha Washington

 12 ½ inch unfinished block

For flying geese:	Cut 4 each from pink fabric: 3 1/2” squares 3 1/2” by 6 1/2" rectangles	Cut 8 from red fabric: 3 1/2" squares
For center square:	Cut  from off-white fabric: Two 4”squares One 4 1/4” square	Cut 1 from a dark fabric: 4 1/4” square

To make flying geese (Make 4): 

1. Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of each 3 1/2” red square.

2. Place one red square on the left side of one pink rectangle with right sides together.  Sew along the diagonal line.  Hint:  Sew slightly off the line toward the outer corner and the unit will measure a more accurate 3 1/2” X 6 1/2".

3. Cut 1/4” away from the sewn line and press open toward the red fabric.

 

4. Place a second red square on the right side of the rectangle with rights sides together and repeat step #2.

5. Trim 1/4” from the sewn line and press open toward the red fabric.

 6.  Square up unit to measure 6 1/2” X 3 1/2"  (if needed).   Repeat 3 more times and place all 4 completed flying geese units to one side.

STOP!

Don't Throw away those triangles you cut off the flying geese!  Sew 1/4 inch from the cut diagonal, press toward the dark color, and square them up to 2 1/2 inch for 8 HST for a later project!

 

Now lets work on the center square unit.

To make center square:

1.      Cut both of the 4” off–white squares once on a diagonal.  Set aside.

2.      Place a dark 4 1/4” square on the off–white 4 1/4” square with right sides together.  Cut on both diagonals to make four quarter-square triangles sets.

3.      Using scant 1/4” seam, sew each set together as shown below.  Press set open toward the darker fabric.  Do this a total of 4 times so you have 4 units.

 

 

 

4.      Place one of these units and one of the off–white triangles from step 1 with right sides together.  Sew using a scant 1/4” seam.  Press open towards the off—white triangle.  Square up unit to 3 1/2".  Repeat three more times.

5.      Sew all four of these units together as shown below.   This center square should measure 6 1/2” X 6 1/2”.

6.   Sew all units together (using the four 3 1/2" pink squares in the corner) in three rows using all scant 1/4" seams, as shown below.  Press seams in alternating directions by row.

So what can we do with this block?  Well, here's a few ideas:

 

So, how are you doing??  I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am writing it!