Month 6 - Dec 11/Jan 12 - Dancing Tulips

Dear Frisco Quilt Guild friends - It has been great fun creating this program for you.  You have stunned me with your enthusiasm and ability to follow directions.  I  know that shouldn't shock me...but there always seems to be one in a group of 80 that will ignore a plan.  Whoever it is in our group (Anita maybe?) hasn't digressed very far, and where you have it has been a wonderful addition to the group of blocks. 

General description of block: This is nine patch block reminds me of tulips reaching in from the corners to touch their petals.  When seen as a collection of blocks invokes all of the joy and festivity of a holiday spent with friends and family.  It uses all of the 5 fabrics selected.

Cutting directions: (41 pieces)
FQG - dark and light refer to your kit fabrics

• From dark (red in kit) - cut 1, 5 1/4 inch square. Sub-cut this square diagonally into 4 small triangles.
• From light (green in kit) - cut 1, 5 1/4 inch square. Sub-cut this square diagonally into 4 small triangles.

Since December is such a busy month and we are all buffetted with decisions every time we turn around, and I really like the way the blocks looks in this colorway, lets all do our blocks this way.  Go to your stash and find fabric that reads as teal, white, and dark green.

• From background (teal)-
• cut 1, 4 ½ inch square for center
• cut 4, 4 ½ inch squares for middle edge blocks.
• From 1st contrasting fabric (dark green) -
• cut 4, 2 ½ inch squares for corner blocks
• cut 8, 2 ½ inch squares for middle edge blocks.
• From 2nd contrasting fabric (white) -
• cut 8, 2 ½ inch squares for corner blocks.
• cut 8, 2 ½ inch squares for middle edge blocks.

Piecing directions:

Corners -

• Sew one dark and one light small triangle together to make large triangle.
• Being careful not to warp the triangles, iron seams open.
• Make 4.
• Be careful to sew each set in the same order. The finished large triangles should be identical.

• Sew 3, 2 ½ inch squares into “L” shapes with white (2nd contrasting fabric) on the legs and dark green (1st contrasting fabric) in the corner.
• Iron seams toward white (2nd contrasting fabric).
• Trim “L” shapes 1/4 inch to the outside of the three point intersection. You will be cutting white fabric only. The remaining shape is trianglish with three right corners.
• Align light and dark large triangle center seam along the inner and outer corners of “L” shape, right sides and hypotenuses together.
• Sew along the hypotenuse. Iron seams toward light and dark triangle side of square.
• Trim square to 4 ½ inches.
• Make 4

Middle Edge block -

• Draw a diagonal line on wrong side of all 2 ½ inch squares. (There should be 16)
• Align dark green (1st contrasting) 2 ½ square with a corner of a 4 ½ inch square of teal (background fabric) with right sides together and the drawn line parallel to the corner.
• Sew on diagonal line.
• Fold dark green (1st contrasting fabric) back so piece is 4 ½ inches square. There should be three pieces of fabric meeting in one corner.
• Iron.
• Continue this process in each corner making sure that two contiguous corners are dark green (1st contrasting fabric) and two are white (2nd contrasting fabric).
• Leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance, trim excess fabric from back of block.
• Make 4

Block -

• row 1& 3 - corner square with light & dark side on the outside edge; middle edge block with dark green (1st contrasting fabric) next to dark green (1st contrasting fabric) and white (2nd contrasting fabric) next to white (2nd contrasting fabric); corner square with light & dark side on the outside edge.
• row 2 - middle edge block with white (2nd contrasting fabric) to the outside; teal (background) square; middle edge block with white (2nd contrasting fabric) to the outside.
• Assemble rows so that same fabrics are touching to make one 12 ½ inch block (actual size, including future seam allowances.)

I'm loving this one....

Bring your finished blocks to the December January general meeting of the Frisco Quilt Guild, (January 24 and our regular location), to be elegible to enter the drawing.  I  The winner  gets to take home all of the blocks entered as well as any remaining kits, printed finishing suggestions, and uncut fabric for this project.