Modern Monday - Block 17

Hour Glass Variation

Block 17 - Hour Glass Variation

Although this was a lot cuter in my mind's eye, I do think that it turned out sort of interesting to look at and in other colorways it might be better! What I was going for was the bow-tie effect you get with the small triangles. (Focus on the white fabric only and you can see it.) When grouped together with other Hour Glass blocks, the bow tie stands out as a secondary pattern giving the non-variation block a little pick-me-up!

I chose the dark gray to offset the orange dots and white, but I think I'd use a lighter gray if I were to make this again - or swap the orange and white fabrics. But any combination seems to work okay.

Cutting:

• From the dark gray, cut 2 - 1 1/2" x 6 1/2" strips
• From the white, cut 1 - 3 1/4" square and cut in half on the diagonal
• *From the orange, cut 1 - 5 1/8" square and cut in half on the diagonal. Note: I cut mine at about 5 3/8" to give me room to square it up properly at the end.

*Bias alert! By cutting on the diagonal, you will end up with edges that are on the bias. If you are not adding your sashing strips now, be very careful with this block so you don't stretch those sides. You can stay-stitch around the finished block if you're concerned with stretching or shoot the orange with a bit of spray starch before cutting the square.

Here's the fabrics. I'm now looking at my blocks as a whole each time I make a color decision to fill in with colors I'm not using enough.

 Lay out the elements as they will look in the finished block. (I forgot to take a picture of this step.) First, sew the gray strips to the longest edge of the white triangles. Make sure to center the strip on the triangle. Press to the gray.

Trim off the excess gray by lining up your ruler with the edge of the triangle.

Sew the two pieced triangles to the orange triangles, pressing to the orange. Join these two units and trim your block to 6 1/2". It's helpful to use the diagonal lines on your ruler to square up this bloc so you get all four corners just right.