Traditional Tuesday - Block 57

Piano Keys

Block 57 - Piano Keys

Although I'm calling this a block, it's really a section for a border. If you really, really love piecing or are determined to use up a lot of scraps, this is the block for you!

I've been seeing a lot of 80s inspired quilting on the internet lately, so here's my nod to the 80s! ( For those of you too young to remember *wink/wink* red/black/white was big in the 80s!)

Cutting:

• From the black, cut 3 - 1 1/2" x 6" strips
• From the red, cut 3 - 1 1/2" x 4 1/2" strips
• From the gray/neutral, cut 3 - 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" strips

Lay out your cut strips as shown. I had some 1 1/2" strips leftover from something else so I used them rather than cutting the neutral strips to 2 1/2" for this step. Sew the neutral strips to the red strips, pressing to the red.

If your neutral strips are longer, trim the section to 6 1/2" making sure to keep all the red strips the same length (4" finished).

Sew a pieced unit to a plain strip to make 3 pairs and join the pairs. The block will be 6 1/2".

Here's how the piano key border would look in a quilt. Some versions don't piece the alternate strip, but just use all 6 1/2" strips. Either way it looks nice, it just depends on how much you want to piece!