QUILTsocial | Issue 03 Spring 2015

good for the guy...
Inspiration for the block
Template ready to be cut
The two pieces are mirror images of each other.
Q
8 ●
.com spring 2015
UILTsocial
Template drawn on paper
The piece on the right is the off cut and the
piece on the left is for the block.
Pieces placed right sides together with the
corner over hanging.
Sewing
the
hour
glass
block
together
Photos by Jennifer Houlden
Jennifer Houlden
The last time I wrote about the What’s
Good For the Gal is Good For the Guy
quilt challenge I was making the first
block of the challenge quilt. I’m now
going to be sewing the hour glass block
together, which is the second of the
three blocks I’ll be using in this quilt
challenge.
My inspiration for this block came from
my kitchen. Not the egg timer, but
rather the coffee pucks for the coffee
machine. They were stacked on top of
each other and, I thought, oh, that’s kind
of cool and would make an interesting
block design. In order to get the right
angle, the square would have to be cut
at more than a 45 degree angle making
it easier to piece if I used a template to
cut the pieces.
Making the template
After drawing the block on paper, I cut
out the shape and pasted it to a piece of
heavy box board. Then, I cut around the
paper through the box board to make
the template. Remember last month
when I was making templates for the
Snowball Block? I recommended not
using cardboard for this as it tends to
shrink the more times it’s used because
it’s soft and collapses on itself.
The snowball block last month was
based on a 5-inch square as is this hour
glass block. This makes it much easier
to do the math and creates even rows
within the quilt, if everything is kept
within the same measurements.
Cutting the pieces
To cut the pieces, place the template on
the square with the straight edges of
the template lined up at the edge of the
square. Cut along the diagonal side of
the template to create two pieces.
I’m using a different fabric to test the cut
before starting on the quilt fabric, which
is in limited supply. It’s always good to
use some scraps for testing to make sure
everything is right before starting with
the actual quilt fabric.