Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Crossed String Blocks... a tutorial


I fell in love with this block when I saw this quilt.  I followed the tutorial but I was confused with the cutting off the corners of the string portion.  I wasn't clear on what to do.  Once I figured it out, easy peasy so I thought I would add a little bit more to the tutorial that was referenced.  I did not include when to press because you know when to do that.  And of course the seams are 1/4".


Step one:  Make a rectangular string block measuring 3.5" by 10.5".  I used a variety of scraps with random widths.  I precut them to roughly 3.5 inches and then trimmed the rectangle exactly.


Step two:  Cut 10." by 1" strips of white or your choice of solid.  Sash the rectangle string with the white strips.

Step three:  Cut a 2.25" square of paper and cut in half diagonally.  Tape the resulting triangle to your little square ruler.  This will form the guide to help you cut the ends of the string rectangle.  So tricky!


Step Four:  Line the paper triangle on your ruler up with the corner of the rectangle of strings.  Cut the corner off your rectangle of strings.  Just like that.  Flip your rectangle and line up the paper triangle on each of the remaining corners.  Cut them off!


You will have something that now looks like this.  See.  All the corners are missing.  And that is a good thing.  Without the little paper triangle stuck on the ruler, I was completely confused as to how to trim the corners off until I figured out the paper on the ruler thing.  It becomes the guide and then you do not have to think.


Step Five:  Cut 5" squares and then cut on the diagonal so that you have triangles.  I used different greens for my blocks.  Line up the triangles and stitch.  Cutting the triangles bigger is a good thing because you can then trim the blocks nicely later.  DO NOT WORRY when your triangles do not seem to fit properly.  That is okay.


Step Six:  Trim your blocks to 7" square.  Nice and pretty.  


So there.  Crossed string blocks.  Or string crossed blocks or x string blocks.  Use your scraps.  Have fun.  I did.  Quilt to follow.  It is officially a quilt top.  Just wants sandwiching and quilting.  

3 comments:

  1. PERFECT!! What a great tutorial! I can do this! Hitting PRINT!! Thanks Cathy!

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  2. thank you so much for this great tutorial!! I have been eyeing up these blocks on your blog, and love them!! Now that you have made it so easy, I might try this!!

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  3. how neat thanks for the great tut I am going to have to pin this so I can remember to make a few :)

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