Increased By - Cutting and Piecing

After all that research about my Darling Husband's quilt, I decided to make this block. I pulled out stacks of complimentary colors in blue, orange, yellow, and pink. Over the years I've collected quite a stack of batik fabrics. I've made more than a couple quilts with that fabric, too. This was my test block. It will finish at 15" by 15" which is a respectable size. This block will easily scale down to 10" by 10", or even to a tiny 5" by 5" block. It can also be scaled up to a wonderful 30" by 30"; just add a 3" border for a really quick baby quilt.

Once I knew my math was good, I cut several blocks and pieced the corner units. This block needs 16 half-square triangle blocks. Be prepared for that. I use the Easy Angle ruler to cut 3.5" strips into triangles stacked for easy chain piecing. Bonnie Hunter has a great tutorial for this tool over at Quiltville. Once you've made a couple hundred, you'll find you don't need to trim them much (if at all) and they come out almost perfect every time. Or perfect, just about every time.

First I had two blocks.

Then four.

Then I did some math and figured out how many bits to cut for a full size quilt. The blocks are big, but that doesn't mean this is a quick project. It was perfect as a leader and ender project, though.

All of the fabrics used for the top came from my collection of batik fabrics. I still have plenty left. Every year it seems I work from my stash and I still have fabric.

Finally I had enough blocks to make a quilt.

Even though sashing challenges me when I want to finish a project, I wanted to use it to set off the blocks and create a secondary design. I think this block would work great with a secondary block. I'll have to work through that design process someday.

I finished it off with a 3" border to frame it all up.