Turn the unit and then do the same on the other side. Line a 45 degree line on one of your rulers carefully with the diagonal line on the block and trim two sides. The extra bit gives lots of room to trim the units down to the size you need, which is 3.5". I started with 4.25" squares for these even though the usual quilting guideline given is 3 7/8" squares. No matter how good you are at sewing these, they tend to be slightly off the needed measurement. Press the HST units with the seams to the print fabric.Ī key to really nice blocks that use a lot of HSTs is to make the HST units larger than you need and trim them down. So I also check my reference points to get my seam allowance for that foot.Ĭut along the line - I just use my scissors. I sew these units with another foot which does not have the quarter inch guide on it. You saw in the earlier picture that I had my 1/4" foot on my machine. I get all six of the pairs ready and chain piece them all at once. Stitch 1/4" from either side of the line. Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. You also need four 3.5" squares of background fabric.įor this block, I make the half square triangle units by placing one of the print and one of the 4.25" background squares right side together. To make the Ocean Waves block, cut six 4.25" squares of the print and six 4.25" squares of background fabric. The difference matters when there are points at the outside edges of the block to match when the blocks are joined because the blocks are harder to trim down in that case. I find that if I work with a 1/4" seam for bee blocks, they come out to be the right size and if I use a scant seam they are slightly too big. For my Janome Horizon, I need to set the needle at 4.0 to get a 1/4" seam and 4.5 for a scant 1/4" seam. Move the needle over if your machine can do that, or change your sight lines or guide, aiming to put your needle down right into the line. Here you can see that my machine's default setting it too wide by a smidge. Set up your machine as you would normally and sew down the line. Look at the photo, you want the measurement to be scant (a little less than 1/4") to allow for the thickness of your pen line. Start by drawing a line 1/4" on your paper. This idea is not mine, I have read it and heard it several places and classed. The more pieces in a block, the greater the impact of small variations in the seams has on the finished size of the block. Since I did not see a tutorial in my very quick search (I am sure there are many if I had looked more closely), I thought I would just make one and share it with all of you.īefore piecing a 16 patch block like Ocean Waves, it is a good idea to check your 1/4" seam. November is my month in Always Bee Learning and I decided to use this block, but in 12" block sizes. I noticed it for the first time in Denyse Schmidt's book Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration. However, her quilt in the book uses a 6" block so to get a 12" block you need to make four of the 6"blocks - which is 48 half square triangles per block. That block is called Ocean Waves and it is a traditional block from the mists of time.
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