Classic Blocks: Fresh Fabric for January… the Shoofly Block

Happy New Year! Are you going to keep making classic blocks with us? This month my friend Becky (you might know her from the SewCanShe Sewcialites group) helped me pick an especially fun one. And its really easy! I used the delightful and colorful Equinox by Ana Davis for Blend Fabrics.

In case you are catching this blog series, we’re making gorgeous quilt blocks using the classic patterns and fresh modern fabrics from Anna Griffin and Blend Fabrics! So far we’ve made the Bear Paw quilt block, Yankee Puzzle,  Spinning Spools,  the Rail Fence Block,  the Variable Star, the Sailboat Block, the Dutchman’s Puzzle Block, the Churn Dash Block,  the Friendship Star, and the Snowball and Nine Patch blocks together! You can search for ‘classic blocks fresh fabric‘ in my search box to find them too.

Each post includes an easy to follow tutorial and a fat quarter bundle giveaway that lasts for 2 weeks.

Each month, Blend Fabrics sends me a collection of fabrics to work with and I get to giveaway a sweet bundle too! If you want to play, just make one or more of the current month’s block within two weeks that the tutorial is posted, and share a picture of your block(s) in our facebook group entry album or  in our flickr pool.

This month the giveaway is 10 fat quarters of the Equinox collection that I mentioned above. Pretty paisleys, lovely lattice and eye-catching scallop designs pop against black, taupe and green backgrounds with accents of sky blue, sunset orange and pink that will keep you quilting and sewing ’till the sun comes up! 

The Shoofly Block is really very easy. It’s just a nine patch block with half square triangles in the corners.

Quilt Math:

To make the Shoofly Block, divide your finished block size into 3, and then add seam allowances to each block.

For example, I decided to make a block with a finished size of 7 1/2”.

For each 7 1/2” (when finished) block, I prepared:

• 4 plain/print HST’s that will be 2 1/2” finished

• 1 print square 3”

• 4 plain squares 3”

If you would like to make a 12” block, prepare:

• 4 plain/print HST’s that will be 4” finished

• 1 print square 4 1/2”

• 4 plain squares 4 1/2”

I’m not going to show you how to make a HST (half square triangle) again. The tutorial for the Friendship Star Block shows a fun way to make two at a time with no bias seams. And the tutorial for the Bear Paw Block shows how to make and use HST papers.

First arrange the 9 pieces in this cute formation. I think it’s adorable. It would also be fun to switch the print and solids around. Or use scrappy mixed up prints.

Sew the first two pieces in each row. Chain piecing makes quick work of it. Press the seams toward the print (or darker fabric). Then chain piece one more time to add the last piece in each row. Press the seam allowance toward the print again.

This is what it looked like when I chain  pieced the other blocks.

Now sew the rows together. If you pressed each seam allowance toward the print, you will be set to nest your seams instead of pinning each row. This is my favorite technique for perfectly matched corners. I think it works better than pins.

I wrote a blog post about nesting seams here.

And there you go. Wasn’t that easy? Now go make a whole quilt-ful!

Starting today you have two weeks (until January 19th) to sew a shoofly block and post a picture into one of the two photo albums mentioned above to enter to win the beautiful fq bundle from Blend fabrics. You may make any size block using any fabric. I’ll announce the winner in our facebook group in case you are lurking there.

Happy sewing!