Help in making block bigger

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She in PA 20 years ago

I am new at quilting and need help. I have a 6 11/2 " block when finished will be 6 " and would like to add to it to make it a 12" block. This is how we made my first quilt I made blocks bigger. But, I had templates and that made it easy.

On the first quilt I made we took a twelve inch block and added a strip and a corner to it to make it bigger. You can look my pictures here they are in the quilt block album at the end

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had templates to use to do this. I am making a lap throw for my Mom. Ihave made 6 1/2 " blocks that is allowing for the seam allowance. The way weadded the strip and the triangles was to cut the strip first then sew it tothe triangle, then sew it to the block. I want the strip to be 1" finishedso I guess I cut it 1 1/2" wide and 6 1/2" long. Am I right so far? The nextpart we used a template to cut a square and then cut it across in adiagonal. This next part is what I am confused with, how big of a square will I have to cut to make the diagonal fit 6 1/2 " ? It has to leave me with a

1/4" seam allowance where it all meets? I hope someone out there understands me and can help.

Or do you know of another way to make it look good and make it a bigger block. The pattern is a Little Tulip Basket. It is a basket with a flower in the middle, I paper pieced it. I just want to make a throw for my Mom. So I made for blocks and was going to enlarge them to 12" blocks and then add sashing and a border.

Please Help She in PA

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Tina 20 years ago

She, I am also new at this - and this is what I did recently to make some small blocks bigger.

I just cut sashing type strips in two complimentary colors to my block and put them on one corner. Sort of like a Log Cabin block. I don't know how to describe/explain this but I will try to draw it and email it to you if you'd like. It made it really, really easy for me to enlarge the blocks and it turned out really pretty.

Tina

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Shirley.Caylor 20 years ago

I think the formula is to add 7/8 inch to the finished size so you would want a square 7 3/8 but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. Instead of 7/8 inch you might just add a whole inch and trim it to what you need.

Hope this helps

Shirley

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Patti 20 years ago

One of the easiest ways to do this, She, would be to draw it out. If you haven't got any squared paper, that doesn't matter. Tape two ordinary printer sheets together, then a bit on the long side, so that you can get a 12.5" square drawn. Draw a square within that which is

12" (your desired finished size. Make marks half way along each side and join them. This square represents your existing 6" (finished) block

its frame. Within this square, centre your 6" block and then see how much framing (what width I mean) you need to get it to meet the previous drawn square. You will notice that seam allowances have been ignored since the drawing of the very first square. This is perfectly fine, because for the next step, you trace the various parts to make templates, and *then* add the quarter inch seam allowances all round each part. The reason I suggest going this, the long way round, is that I don't think you would get an exact 12" (finished) block, simply by adding the

1.5" strips and the corner triangles. I did look at the block you mentioned. The framing strips do not come to a point, so I think you might be a little on the small side, if you did it just like that one. I may be wrong about this, but I don't think the size of the corner triangle is the only consideration for you here. . In message , She in PA writes

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Help in making block bigger

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