shoo fly block {a tutorial}

Last night I finished my Shoo fly quilt top. It was a serious race against time as I knew I had to finish this quilt top since I still need to baste and quilt it, obviously, and I want it to be ready by Sunday to be given as a gift to one special 11 year old girl.

Fortunately, these blocks are pretty big (12.5" square) and once I found a system of working in batches, they came together quite painlessly.

I love how pretty, bright, and modern looking this block is. Oh, and chunky! I love chunky blocks. So, I thought some of you might appreciate a tutorial on how to make this fun 12.5" block. Ready? here we go!

Choose two contrasting fabrics for your block. I chose red and white polka dot fabric for the main part of the block and white solid fabric for the background.

From the main fabric, cut out 2- 5" squares, and 4 - 4.5" squares.

From the background fabric cut out 2 - 5" squares and 1- 4.5" square.

 Take your 2 - 5" white squares and draw a line dividing each square into 2 equal triangles. 

Place one 5" white square on top of one 5" print fabric (right sides together), pin in place, and sew a 1/4" along both sides of the line you drew in the previous step.

 Do the same with the second set of 5" squares, once done take your block to your cutting mat and cut along the drawn line. Now you have 4 HSTs.

 Press your HSTs open and trim to 4.5" squares. 

Now arrange your HSTs, as well as squares you cut out at the beginning, into a shoo fly block.

First, sew the rows of 3 block together, press.

I like to press my seams the way shown in the picture as this makes sewing rows together a lot easier as there are no bulky seams to go through.

 Now sew the rows together and press the seams, at this point I press my seams open.

Trim, if needed, and you have one lovely 12.5" Shoo fly block, all finished. Wasn't that easy? 

I made 20 of these colorful blocks, so my quilt top measures 48" x 60". A perfect size for a child's quilt, if you ask me.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Happy sewing, everyone! Thanks for stopping by. Svetlana

Linking up to Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.