Traditional Tuesday - Block 39

The Dragon Fly

Block 39 - The Dragon Fly

This is one of those blocks that really doesn't change much from the Modern version to the Traditional. But it is nice both ways! As I said yesterday, it is closely related to Rocky Road to Kansas - the only difference being this version doesn't have string pieced points. I'm thinking you could use a striped fabric for the points if you want to mimic the string piecing. See the end for some links to both Modern and Traditional versions.

I chose four fabrics for this block. A flower print, because it's still June and three that coordinate with it.

Print out the templates, making sure your printer is set to "no scale" so each unit prints out close to 3 1/2" . Click here for the link to the templates. Measure before starting so know early if you have to reprint.

Paper piece in the usual way. I chose to use two different fabrics for the center. If you do this, make two of each color and be sure to alternate them when sewing the units together. Trim the units to 3 1/2" after piecing. If your lines are off a bit, make sure you measure from the point corner first so that point won't get cut off. You can fudge it at the sides to make it work if they're off, but the points are harder to make work.

Remove the paper from the units and sew together like a 4-patch block.

I pressed the seams open to alleviate the bulk where the seams come together. Your block will be  1/2" when done.

Some links:
This one is really cool. This old quilt is almost like a crazy quilt but there's no embroidered accents and it's very structured. Look closely and you'll see that instead of string piecing, each point is done in a braid design. Very cool and could be very Modern  or Traditional!

 Scroll down on this page and you'll see it. Very old and well used, but shows the string pieced points.

This is an example of making the strings very controlled, not wonky at all! Nice!

Modern version.

Another modern version.