Wild Waves Tute

Specifically for the lovely ladies of the Cherish Circle of Do.Good stitches for our April quilt - but obviously, anyone can have a go at this block - it's very pretty - and made in bright, saturated fabrics, looks a bit like bunting twirling in the breeze....

this is 2 blocks, side by side.....

Okey dokey, to make 2 x 12" finished blocks, you'll need the following....

from the white fabric - 8 x 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" squares, plus
                                     16 x 4" x 4" squares
n.b. - you can use any white

from your scrap box - 1 x 4 1/4" square of 8 bright, saturated fabrics - any colour and you can use a mix of prints and solids.

Method:

1.  With a pencil and a ruler, mark each of the white squares, on the wrong side, with 2 diagonal lines, 1/4" away from the centre diagonal (fig 1)

fig 1

2.  Pick up one white 4 1/4" square and place it on top of one of your bright 4 1/4" squares, right sides together, then sew down the inside of the drawn lines (fig 2)

fig 2

3.  Cut apart down the centre of the sewn lines.  Set the seams with the iron then press the seams open (fig 3)

fig 3 (showing wrong side uppermost)

4.  Repeat with remaining coloured squares and 4 1/4" white square until you have 16 HST's
5.  Pick up one HST and lay a white 4" square on top, right sides together - make sure the diagonal of the HST is NOT aligned to the diagonal lines drawn on the 4" white square - it should be opposite (fig 4)

fig 4

6.  Sew down the inside of each drawn line, cut apart and press the seam open as before (fig 5)

fig 5 (showing wrong side uppermost)

7.  Continue until you have used all the 4" white squares - you'll now have 32 small 1/4sq patches.
8.  Trim all of these patches to 3 1/2" square (fig 6)

fig 6 - I used a JT ruler to square these up, but you can do it just as successfully with a regular cutting ruler

9.  Using the following guide (to ensure the patches are oriented the same way - this is a little trickier than it looks - and please make sure the first column has the triangles pointing up :-)), layout your patches in 2 blocks of 4 x 4 patches 

please note the direction of the diagonals - your 2 blocks will be mirror images

10.  Sew 16 patches together to make a 1 block
11.  Repeat with remaining 16 patches
12. Send blocks to me (but only if you're a Cherish Circle member....)

There you go - please let me know if you have any questions - have fun....