Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Playing with Hourglass Blocks

While slowly quilting my Winter in the Woods quilt,



I decided I want to experiment with hourglass blocks.  I had a little bit of Color Me Happy leftover from the Charm Pack Cherry quilt I made last spring and this mini:



Probably when I sewed up that mini-quilt, I had sewn all the rest of my charm squares into HSTs, so it was easy to cut them again and sew into hourglass blocks.  Just to be sure I was doing it right, I checked out this tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts, another one of my favorite bloggers.

I ended up with 16 little hourglass blocks, which I have been busy trimming and squaring up to 4 inches.


A goal I have for myself this year is to work on the accuracy of my cutting and piecing.  Trimming and squaring up are not my forte, as both seem fiddly and tedious!  But I am sure I will appreciate the results.  So far, I am working toward another mini, something like this:


It makes me think of spring, tulips coming up and green stuff growing, something I am looking forward to immensely!  

It's fun to see the pinwheels that form when you look more closely!


Linking up to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.  Go check out all of Cyndy's fun ideas for using up scraps and orphan blocks.  Great quilty inspiration!






5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I should also make it a goal to improve my accuracy this year. It is a definitely a challenge area. I am hoping starting to starch my fabrics will help. Your hour glass blocks are lovely. It's interesting to see them become pinwheels!

Sandra Walker said...

Love the coral and apple green, so spring-like! Was just saying to my husband today that I hope hope hope it is nice when we go back north...the winter has been record-breaking (I'm serious) bitter. Should have a link up shortly! PS Your Winter in the Woods is looking just delicious.

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

Love those colorful hourglass blocks. I swear by Bloc Loc rulers if you ever get the chance to get one. Spendy but well worth the money. Thanks for linking up with Oh Scrap! I always love to see what you are making with your scraps.

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

Me too.. working on the accuracy & trimming thing! (in the past, I have tended to just hope for the best!) It always feel strange to me - you are talking of spring, and we down here in NZ are so -so-so hot just now! Love your colours! Linda

Vera said...

Pretty! What a lovely color combo.