Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Flying Bird Block

For the Flying Bird Block, number 6, we need three dark/medium fabrics and a light fabric.

Cut

three light 3.5 inch squares

three light 4 inch squares, and cut those into triangles in half diagonally (to make 6 triangles)

two light and two medium (my paisley) 2.5 inch squares for Half Square Triangles

one light and one dark (the check) 2.5 inch squares for HSTs

two dark (check) 2.5 inch squares cut in triangles (to make 4 triangles)

and 4 additional medium (tan botanical print) 2.5 inch squares cut into (8) triangles


Make your Half Square Triangles.
The layout of the block is still pretty confusing at this point.

It helps to think of it in term of the tic-tac-toe grid common to a nine-patch block. Like this:
So we need to make two of these:
and two of these:
and two of these:

Pressing each step of the way, we begin by adding triangles to our HSTs.
Then the second small triangle sewn on makes our pieced triangles, which we will be sewing to our solid triangles to make squares.
Remember to sew through the junction of the seams to get crisp points.
And trim your dog ears to reduce bulk -- and really, just because it looks better too.
Okay, now, does your layout look like this? Mine did the first time I made this block. This is wrong as you will notice from the arrows pointing out where the fabric got switched.
Your quilt block should actually layout like this:
As you sew those pieced squares into rows keep in mind your pressing directions. You may need to trim some of the seams where it gets a bit bulkier but try to press for those nestling seams that will make (pinning and) lining up crisp corners easier.
Sew those rows together and there we have it. Flying Birds.

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