Working Smart

I'm still working on the baby quilt for Natalie. Bottomline, I bought too much fabric (awwww, too bad; right?!). So I am using the opportunity to try a fun technique that Nicole showed us at our Sew In last fall. Now I know she found it on the web somewhere, but I'm not sure who the sly sewist is that figured this out,but I think you'll agree it's slick.

It's all about half square triangles...Take your two fabrics and place them right side together. Then there's a little math: the size of the block x2+1. So, my blocks for Natalie's quilt are 6.5" squares, here's the calculation (don't squirm if you're math-a- phobic; it's not that hard): 6.5x2=13  13+1=14. That means I cut 14" squares. 

So, draw the "X" like usual and stitch 1/4" on either side of the lines.  Now here's the cool part: you get EIGHT half square triangles with this method.

Next (and this is the Ah Ha! moment) cut on the line like usual and in between:

This is what you end up with (told you it was pretty cool):

With a very minimal amount of trimming, here's the finished product:

Now as you may recall, I mentioned that I bought too much fabric. With this particular block ( blue stripe and white), I only needed one. But the new technique is so fun that I have 7 extra blocks. What to do with them, you ask? My husband has a client who is an going to be a new dad in May, so...I can use them on that baby quilt too. Some things just happen for a reason, don't you think?