Liberated Checkerboard Block

This liberated variation of the classic 16-patch block is easy to cut and sew . . . as long as you take care to keep things organized.

The blocks are made two-at-a time, beginning with 2 large squares. The finished size of your liberated checkerboard block will be 2-to-2 1/2 inches smaller than the these squares.

For the Block Lotto in July 2011 (and these examples), we used 10 inch squares to start: one white and one solid or tone-on-tone (TOT) print in a medium to dark value with high contrast.

CUT FABRICS

1. Place fabrics on the cutting mat, one on top of the other with edges aligned.  Both fabrics must be right sides up.
   
2. Vertical cuts: make 3 straight cuts from the top edge to the bottom edge.  The sections do not have to be even and the cut lines may be as slanty as you decide to make them. There should be at least one inch between the cuts and at the outside edges.  I pulled the sections apart so that you could see them--you don't need to do that and can leave them just as they are on your cutting mat.
   
3. Horizontal Cuts: Make three straight cuts from left edge to right edge. If it makes it easier for you, you can rotate the mat (or walk around the table), but avoid moving the cut fabric pieces.  The same 1-inch rule of thumb applies.  

     

PREPARE TO SEW

1. Create the checkboard by swaping top and bottom fabrics of every other piece.
   
2. Carefully move to your sewing area–because these irregular shaped pieces will only go together ONE WAY, carefully move them close to your machine.  I used a 12-inch square ruler as a platter to carefully transfer my pieces from cutting table to sewing table.

      

SEWING THE BLOCK
 
You now have the pieces for two Liberated Checkerboard blocks.  Sew them together as a 16-patch.  Here’s the approach I used to keep everything organized and correctly oriented–I’m a little dyslexic and so I need to be VERY careful or something will get turned around.

	1. Get Organized Carefully lay out the stacked pieces (for two blocks) next to your sewing machine to prepare for assembly.
	2. Begin Working Top-to-Bottom, Left-to-Right Flip each of the top fabrics in the second column, onto the first column, like turning a page in a book.
	3. Chain Sew the Pairs Sew the pairs together, from Top-to- Bottom. After you've sewn the pieces from the "top" block, repeat the process for the second block. Leave the four pairs of each block connected (by thread)—only snip the thread between blocks.
	4. Press after every set of seams I found it easiest to press after the pieces in each column are sewn. Always press toward the non-white fabric–it will make matching the seams easier later. This photo shows the BACK after the first set of seams have been sewn and pressed.
	5. Layout the Block with Sewn Pieces Put the sewn, and pressed section back in place in your block layout.
	6. Continue to Work Left-to-Right, Top-to-Bottom "Turn the pages" of the pieces in the third column and place them on top of the corresponding piece to the left. Chain sew these four seams as before. Add the third column to the second block of your pair.
	7. Press and Repeat Press the second set of seams and Repeat with the last column of squares. Your block will now consist of 4 sections (rows) that are held together at the intersections by the thread left in place from chain piecing.
	8. Sew the “rows” together Fold the top row down. If the seam intersections are connected by the thread from your chain piecing, you may find, as I did, that you do not need pins to accurately sew the seam, matching the intersections. Stitch and repeat for each row of both blocks until your checkerboard block PAIR is done.

You may decide to square-up all your blocks and trim to the same size. For the block lotto, we're sending the blocks UNTRIMMED and allowing the winner to decide how he or she will use them.

Here's a look at how 35 liberated checkerboard blocks randomly arranged  might look--with block photos from Béa, Cathy, Cheri, Ginny, Jennifer, Julie, Kate, Kathie, Linda, Linnea, Mary Jane, Michelle and Toni.

Thanks to everyone for the great block photos that made this virtual quilt possible.  If you make a quilt or other project from this liberated checkerboard block, I'd love to see it.

Modern Clover Quilt Block

When Kate sent a drawing of this block to me, I didn't realize it was a Kate original and went looking for the name of the block.  The closest block pattern I found (in Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns was The Clover Blossom . . . and so I dubbed Kate's simplified version the Modern Clover. Because of my research, I immediately recognized The Clover Blossom quilt at the Infinite Variety exhibition.

Kate's block is easily assembled from 4 units--three Half-Square Triangles and a Stem.

• The leaf units are made from green and cream fabrics.  You'll need two leaf units.
• The bloom unit is made from two shades of the same (non-green) color. You'll need only one of these.

For the April 2011 Block Lotto, we will be making a 6 inch Modern Clover block from 3 inch units, using green for the leaves and stem, cream background and two shades of any non-green color for the blossom.These are finished sizes, the units, before they are sewn together should measure 3 1/2 inches and the block will be 6 1/2 inches before it is sewn into a quilt top.

HALF SQUARE TRIANGLE UNITS

Known as half-square-triangles (HST, for short) or triangle squares, there are a lot of ways to make this useful building block unit. Once you find the method that works best for you and become confident making them, you'll be amazed at the quilt block patterns that you can (easily!) make.

The method you use may be influence by the number of HST units you need to make from the same pair of fabrics. If you decide to make a bunch of clover blocks with the same background and leaf fabrics, you might want to make all those units in one fell swoop using Thangles or Triangle Paper or a similar commerical product.

Making many HSTs

Using Thangles, you begin with strips of fabric that are 1/2 inch wider than the finished size of your HST unit.  For example, for our 3 inch units, you would begin with 3 1/2 inch strips of your two fabrics. Read about How Thangles Work on their web site.  Triangles on a Roll is a similar product.

 With other sew-on-the-line products, you begin with two rectangles, place the printed paper (or lightweight non-woven interfacing-like product) on top, pin in place and sew on the dotted or dashed lines and, after all the seams are sewn, cut on the solid lines to create a bunch of HST units.  You can download and print free gridded paper from Block Central. Using their 3-inch HST paper (finished size), you would begin with two 8-1/2 inch squares of fabric to make 8 HST units--enough leaf units for four blocks.  As with anything you download, always be sure to measure the 1" arrow to make sure your computer did not "scale to fit" or otherwise chances the dimensions. Commercial products are printed on larger than printer-paper sized sheets--you use larger rectangles of fabric and produce more HSTs at a time.

Making 1 or 2 HSTs

For the most common method for making a pair of HST units, you begin with two fabric squares that are 7/8" larger than the desired finished size.  Many quilters will cut the squares 1" larger because it's easier to measure and you can trim afterward. This method is described nicely on the About Quilting site here:


Quick and Easy Half-Square Triangle Units

If you have a fabric cutter, you can easily cut one or two triangles from some smallish scraps to make HST units. (FYI, this is not a product placement, I actually bought and use that Go! baby, but can't compare it to anything else ... )

STEM UNIT

For a 3 inch (finished size) stem unit,

Cut:
One 3 1/2 inch square of stem fabric (green)
Two 3 1/8 inch squares of background fabric (cream)




Assemble the stem

1.  Place a smaller background of background fabric on top of the larger square of stem fabric, right sides together, with one corner and adjoining edges perfectly aligned.
   
   
   
   
   

2. Draw a stitching line from corner to corner on the smaller square. For a bonus triangle, draw a second line, parallel to the first, 1/2 inch away (toward the aligned corner).
   
   
3. Stitch on the drawn line(s).
   
   
   
   
4. Cut between the stitch lines . . . or 1/4 inch away from the single stitch line if you don't opt for the bonus triangle square.
5. Press.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 with the second smaller background square, placing it so that it is aligned with the opposite corner and other two sides of the background square.

PUTTING THE CLOVER BLOCK TOGETHER

Lay out the four units for your Clover block. Looking at it in an on-point fashion, keep the LIGHT fabric (in the blossom HST) on the LEFT. If you used different leaf fabrics, then place the LIGHTER leaf on the LEFT. If the leaf fabrics are the same, but the backgrounds are different, place the one with the LIGHTER background on the LEFT.

Sew the units together like a four patch, first in pairs and then press.



Sew two pairs together and you are done.




SOME INSPIRATION FROM THE BLOCK LOTTO COMMUNITY

These blocks were made by Karen, Liz, Maree, MB, Pat, Susan and Wendy.