Tuesday, March 1, 2011

March Block - Duchman's Puzzle

alright! here goes march! i found this idea in the dec 2010 American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

Materials:
16 - white 4 inch squares
4 - 4x7.5 inch rectangles (color #1)
4- 4x7.5 inch rectangles (color #2)

General Instructions:
Finished block is 14.5 inches square
sew right sides together unless stated otherwise
1/4 inch seam allowances on everything

1.) cut all your pieces



2.) Mark a diagonal line on the wrong side of each 4 inch white square

3.) align a marked white square to one end of a rectangle (note the direction of the diagonal line)
3.) sew ON the drawn line and trim the excess leaving a 1/4 seam

4.) press open the attached triangle, pressing the seam in one direction toward the triangle

5.) in the same manner, place a marked white square on the other end of the rectangle. stitch, trim and press as before...
...and now you have a FLYING GEESE UNIT! the unit should measure 4 x 7.5 inches.

repeat steps 3-5 so that you have 4 flying geese units in color #1 and 4 flying geese units in color #2

6.) next, using our flying geese units, make FLYING GEESE PAIRS! with which ever colors you are using make sure that the same colors are on top/bottom each time. in my case, grey on top, red on bottom. press the seams in one direction. the unit should measure 7.5 inch square.

...a flying geese pair!

7.) now our flying geese pairs are going to become a DUTCHMAN'S PUZZLE BLOCK! the placement looks like this: oh, and press the seams open.
tada! the final block should measure 14.5 inches

now, for color choices. i want greys, true reds, and yellows. here are a few samples from my stash to see what i mean. you can use any combination of colors with each other. i used red/grey, but it could be red/yellow or grey/yellow. i want a variety of combinations and variety of large/small print. it does not all have to be small print (like most of my examples)!

I am so excited to see what you guys come up with!
let me know if you have any questions!

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