March Block 1 - Turnstile

We are back!  And ready to do the blocks for March.
This month we are going to look at 2 blocks, and each one involves triangles.

The first one is called Turnstile and the template can be found here

When you print off the 12" block template, set your printer to US letter, and ensure that its not shrinking to fit.  When the page comes out, there is a scale thing on the side that you need to check measures 1".  REALLY important to check this!!!

So print the page out, cut out the templates and you are ready to select your fabric.  If you were doing a whole quilt of this exact block, you would use something firmer than paper for your template.  A good idea is to use the hard plastic stuff you can get from Spotlight (I can't remember the name of this stuff.... spot the one with baby brain!!!!) and then you use that to cut out everything.

Here are my fabric selections.  You need 3 fabrics, one feature, one dark and one contrast.


I'm going to do 3 blocks of each this month as I am hoping others will be keen to do a quilt for a charity - plenty of well-deserving recipients at the moment!

Iron your fabric, and put the template on the fabric, paying careful attention to the arrow.  This arrow must be aligned with the grain.  It can either be the cross grain or the selvedge grain, either one is fine.  It only really matters which way you go if you have a directional pattern as opposed to an overall pattern.

Use your ruler carefully and cut around the template.  You can see the seam allowance is allowed for, so you cut right on the edge of the paper.  Be very accurate, and use pins to hold the template on.

I'm a bit of a scrooge when it comes to fabric.  I have to use my fabric very carefully, and I try to maximise the fabric, and I try to leave big useable chunks of fabric, rather than little pieces.

When you have cut all the fabric, you can lay it out and see what arrangement looks best.  IN the sample, they use the dark fabric on the outside to frame the block, and I have to say I like it best like this.  But there is nothing to say you can't arrange it whichever way you want to.

I'll do a post in a day or so on how to sew the triangles together.  In time you will be able to look at these blocks and figure out how to do it.  Normally you go from little pieces to big!  So you will join the two smaller triangles, then attach them to the bigger triangle, and then you have a four patch to put together.

I've also finished my log cabin, and that's ready to give away to my midwife.  Photos to follow!