QAF Block of the Month

October 2008

Fall Beauty

10 1/2" (unfinished), 10" (finished)

October - the beginning of fall's bounty of colorful falling leaves and cooler weather for most of us, just calls for a cozy looking quilt. So we are offering this lovely block, inspired by the Buckeye Beauty block, with the fabric values shifted just a bit, and we are calling it Fall Beauty. This is a simple block made up of two half-square triangles and two 4-patches.

You will need (5) fall colored fabrics for this block - a golden yellow, an orange or rusty red and a dark, rich brown for the 4 patches, and a tan or muslin and a peachy orange for the HST. Your fabrics CAN be tone on tones, small geometric prints, batiks, plaids, calicos, etc. They should NOT have any white or black in them. You should look for dark and light values to be placed as they are in the block picture above.

I will give you info for making the 4-patches from strip sets - including cutting short strips. You all know how to just cut squares if you'd rather do them that way.

Cut for each block:

To Assemble block:

Make Half Square Triangles (HST): Mark a diagonal line from corner to corner on the back of each tan 6" square. Place each tan square RST with a 6" peachy orange square and stitch 1/4" on each side of the drawn line. Cut apart on the drawn line, press seam allowances to the darker fabric. Now square up each pieced square to exactly 5 1/2" square, lining up the diagonal sewn line with the diagonal line on your ruler.

Make the 4-patches: Pair a dark brown strip with a yellow strip and stitch the length of the strips. Repeat with the dark brown and the orange strips. Press each to the dark fabric. Crosscut two 3" sections from each strip set. Lay them out into two identical 4-patches, following the picture above. Stitch, press seam. Square these up to 5 1/2" square.

Now lay out the 4 pieced patches, orienting them in the right directions (sorry to keep harping on that), stitch seams and you are done. Square up your blocks to 10 1/2". Enter lots. This would make a nice quilt for a guy, or in the car for a picnic, the stadium, etc.

You may make up to 3 blocks to enter from the same fabric set. If you want to make more, change at least half of the fabrics.

Here is one way to set these blocks (using 16 of them) - you get a couple of secondary designs - the bordered square in the centers, and of course, the stars!