This month's lotto block is Goshen Star. We're making the blocks in batiks on cream/tan tone-on-tone backgrounds.
Because I am not a precise sewer, I found it useful to measure and square up both the HSTs and the rectangular units before assembling the block.
When making the blocks, make sure you have a 1/4 inch seam allowance extending beyond all 12 points around the outside of your blocks. My block photos are a little deceptive because I crop out the seam allowance to produce a nice square block looks like it will after it's sewn into a top, but here is a detail shot of one edge of one of Kate's blocks:
Kate also suggests that when constructing the rectangle units that instead of sewing ON the diagonal for the little background squares, sew just to the outside of the diagonal - to give yourself that much more space to turn and press the corner squares.
Janet Wickell recently blogged an article for the about.com Quilting site which has great information about pressing blocks and links to other tips for building better blocks ... for the lotto, for swaps and for yourself.
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