A Square in a Square

OK! This is easy. Take a 7" square and sew some of the 4-1/2" strips around it to make a block like those above.

BUT WAIT.... THERE'S SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO DO FIRST!!!!

If you select a "calm" 7" square, you MUST surround it with a "busy" print. And if you start with a "busy" 7" square, you MUST surround it with a "calm" print.  This is very important. For the quilt to be truly successful (and let's face it, nobody wants to make a dud quilt), you MUST follow this rule.

Half the blocks should have calm insides and busy outsides, and half the blocks should have busy insides and calm outsides.

Now I decided to keep my pairs together, but you are under no such restriction. Do whatever you want.  HOWEVER...

If you end up with a pair of blocks like this, (and really, this looks better in the camera. In real like I could barely tell this two fabrics apart at a distance) you must recognize failure when you see it, and set it aside and try again.

 This is a much better combination. There must be CONTRAST between the two fabrics. If you don't have that, you might end up with a dreaded blob of dark in your quilt, and it will look terrible.

 Sew the long strips around the square...

Then trim off the excess.

42 blocks will make a Queen sized quilt, 6 blocks in 7 rows.  The Sunshine quilt had 36 blocks, 6 rows of 6, and it's fine for a double bed.

So make your blocks. I'll show you mine tomorrow.


oh, by the way... DON'T SEW THE BLOCKS TOGETHER. We're going to  (...gasp!!!) cut them apart!!!