Modern Monday - Block 52

October 01, 2012

Modern Monday - Block 52

Hash Tag

Block 52 - Hash Tag

No applique this week! I thought we'd divert to do a Modern block that has no traditional counterpart. Hash tags seem to have become a part of our lives these days - even if you don't know what it means, you surely have seen them everywhere and hear people on TV talking about them. It also happens to be a nice graphic element to make a block out of!

This block was an amazingly fun block to make! It uses a smidge of improv and a bit of slice and dice. No two blocks will be the same!

I chose two colors for mine. The orange is from a 5" charm swap I participate in on line. Charms are perfect for this block. There aren't cutting directions since we have to cut as we go.

First, cut two gray strips about 1 1/2" - 2" wide. Sew these to either side of the 5" orange charm square. Press to the gray. Then cut this unit into 5 - 1" strips. You will only need 4.

Cut a 1" strip of gray and 2 - 3"-4" wide strips. They should be about 7"-8" long to give yourself plenty of room to square it up at the end.

Sew the two orange strips to either side of the 1" gray strip. Press to the gray. I didn't line up the orange strips perfectly - I wanted them "off" a bit. Add the wide strips to the sides and press to the gray.

Lay the two remaining orange strips over the sewn unit to see how you want your hash tag to look. You can go on an angle like this or straight across if you choose.

Remove the strips and cut the pieced unit apart where you want the strips to be inserted. Sew the strips in where the cuts were made. Try to align the strips as much as possible. You can see above where mine are off a bit. I"m okay with that since this isn't precision piecing. In a traditional version, I would make sure everything is straight up and down and across and that everything lines up perfectly.