Modern Monday - Block 24

Spool

Block 24 - Spool

The spool block is a favorite among quilters! It's similar to the bow-tie block, and like the bow tie we made earlier, there are no set-in seams to deal with. If you wanted to make the "thread" part of the spool a different color to look more realistic, you could add in a square in the center. I like this version though because it is so simple and you still get the point that it's a spool of thread even though the spool is all one color!

I chose an orange solid on light gray for mine.

Cutting:
From each fabric, cut strips 4" x ~12 1/2". From the orange, you'll need an additional 4" square.

Orange and light gray.

From your gray strip, cut 2 triangles. Use your 45-degree angle on your ruler. You can just barely see the white line on the bottom edge of the gray strip.

Next, cut 2 triangles from the orange. This ruler makes it a little easier to see the 45-degree line to make this cut.

Cut your 4" orange square in half on the diagonal and sew to the ends of each of the gray triangles. I placed mine randomly "off," so it's not straight.

Trim the gray seam allowance on the backside to 1/4" and press the orange tips.

Line up the triangle with the edge of your ruler and trim.

Lay out the block like it will look when sewn.

Sew the block together like an hourglass block, pressing seams to the orange so they oppose when joined together. Trim to 6 1/2" square. I toyed with the idea of trimming it all off center, but in the end I decided to keep the large triangles straight and let the small triangles be the wonky ones!