Saturday Six-Inch Sampler

Two very different blocks beginning with S this week – Simple Basket and Six-Grid Chain.

Simple basket has a diagonal construction and yet more half-square triangles (these are such versatile units that it’s no wonder they crop up in so many blocks). Download the instructions and a colouring page for Simple Basket here.

Six-Grid Chain is just squares and rectangles arranged to form a chain across the block (or quilt if you make lots of blocks). Deceptively simple you will need to be accurate in your piecing, especially at this size. Download the instructions and a block to colour.

Don’t forget that you can find step-by-step photo tutorials on our Tutorials page (menu at the top) for all the units in these blocks and the others we feature this year.

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As Autumn arrives we reach the next letter in our alphabetical journey – S. A lot of blocks begin with S but we have chosen just a few to present to you over the next month. Before that though, download the pattern for an applique S if you are collecting the letters.

Our two blocks this week both feature half-square triangles with squares and we start with the more intricate one – Schoolgirl’s Puzzle, a four-patch block which you can have a bit of fun with. Download the cutting instructions and a block to colour.

Next up is Shoofly, another four-patch but very simple

and if you alter the colouring you get a four-patch Snowball block. Download the cutting instructions and a block to colour for this/these blocks.

Join us next week as we explore another couple of blocks beginning with S.

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This week we take a road trip with our blocks as we look at the Road to California, the Road to Oklahoma, the Road to the White House and the Rocky Road to California. Download all the cutting instructions and blocks to colour here.

Let’s go to California first – the Road to California is a nine-patch block

as is the Rocky Road to California

but with a few tweaks to placing of lights and darks we find ourselves on the Road to the White House.

Heading to Oklahoma we travel along a four-patch

Which road are you going to travel?

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Moving hastily on from Q we arrive at blocks beginning with R and we start with two blocks – Raspberry Cheesecake and Rolling Stone. But first of all download the applique pattern for R, with no seam allowance remember.

Raspberry Cheesecake is another one to add to your collection of cake and other sweet treats blocks. It is a fairly simple nine-patch block and the way it is coloured can change the look of the block quite markedly – here are the initial colourings given by EQ

And then a few more – notice how you can highlight the star in the centre, or the squares around the edges or the inner triangles depending on where the lights, darks or brights are placed. Download the instructions and the block to colour to play with.

Another nine-patch block with squares on point – this time in the corners – is Rolling Stone. Again you can have fun with the colouring so download the instructions and blank block to play with.

There will be a few more ‘R’ blocks next week.

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A new month and a new letter as we hunt for blocks beginning with Q (that are not too complicated to make at 6 inches!) – and we did find one – Queens’ Petticoat. But first for those of you making the alphabet blocks here is the letter Q for you to applique – no seam allowances remember.

Now to the Queen’s Petticoat block, although it reminds us more of a hat than a petticoat – what do you think?

Download the instructions and have fun colouring in the blank block – whether it looks more like a hat or a petticoat possibly depends on where you put those lights and darks.

And that’s it for this week. Next week we start searching for R blocks – and there are plenty of them.

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Our final two blocks beginning with P are Proof Through the Night and Puss in the Corner; both of them are ideal for using up your small scraps.

Proof Through the Night is a simple 9-patch block, mainly half-square triangles (HSTs) plus one plain square. The block was designed and named by Jeffrey Gutcheon and we featured it as our block in our last Chris & Barbara Pop-Up workshop which you can read about on our sister blog.

EQ has this colouring as its default

but you can colour it however you wish; switching the lights and darks around gives a very different feel to the block for instance as does limiting your colour palette. Download the cutting instructions and a block to colour.

Puss in the Corner (or this version – there are several other blocks with this name) is made with Flying Geese units and triangles-and-a-square units in the corners; both of these can be foundation pieced if you prefer. Download all the patterns here.

E’s original default colourings uses just two colours – a light and a dark

but just moving these around can make the block look very different

As can using different colours

Next week (next month even – where have the weeks gone?) we leave P behind and see if we can find a block beginning with Q.

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More blocks beginning with P – Practical Orchard and Prairie Flower.

Practical Orchard is very simple block – just squares and one quarter-square triangle unit in the centre. Download the instructions.

You can colour it a variety of ways too – use the colouring page in the instructions – and it is an excellent block for using scraps, especially at this size.

Our second block of the week is Prairie Flower which looks a little more complicated.

The cutting instructions from EQ suggest cutting the units as shapes and triangles but they can be made using a stitch and flip method too. Cut your main squares at 2 1/2 inches and the triangle squares at 1 1/2 inches. Place the triangles on the correct corners and stitch across the diagonal. Check you have placed the triangle correctly and stitched the right diagonal before trimming the excess and flipping back the remaining triangle. The technique is described in our Square-in-Square tutorial, the only difference being that for this block you are adding two triangles not four to the main square.

And again, you can have fun with colours – will your block be coloured to look like a flower or will anything go?

Yet more blocks beginning with P next week as well, join us then.

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Two more blocks beginning with P this week both of which could make some interesting secondary patterns if put together. Our first one is the Plaited Block

which can be coloured in all sorts of ways as EQ’s magic wand shows. You can download instructions here, including a slightly simplified (?) version which has some added seams to make machine piecing easier – as you can see in the coloured block above.

Our second block is called Plane Thinking which combines 4-patch units and Drunkards path units.

Download the instructions, including a block to colour, and give it a try

There are so many blocks beginning with P that there will be two more to download next week. You should be building up quite a library of blocks by now and there’s still nearly twenty weeks to go.

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A new month and a new letter – P. If you are making (or collecting) the applique letters you can download the pattern here.

There are many blocks beginning with P so today we have just two for you. The first – continuing our sweets/desserts/puddings/cakes theme – is Peach Cobbler.

This, as you see, has corners like those in last week’s Ornate Star block while the other units form a Friendship star. Download the cutting instructions and a block to colour. Add it to Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from a fortnight ago along with several others in previous posts (and there are more to come). Electric Quilt’s magic wand had some fun with the colours –

Our second block this week is a lovely simple block called Pinwheels – just lots of half-square triangles.

Download the cutting instructions and a block to colour here. Once more we played with the colours on Electric Quilt, changing lights and darks around and using different colours in one block.

More ‘P’ blocks next week!

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As promised – a couple more blocks beginning with O this week, starting with Old Maid’s Puzzle. Lots of half-square triangles in this four-patch block but it is not difficult to piece, even at 6 inches. Download the instructions and a block to colour.

Our second block is Ornate Star. This is an Ohio Star variation – it has diamond-in-square units in the corners.

Download the instructions and a block to colour.

Next week we move on to P in our block alphabet.