Thursday, April 12, 2018

Disappearing act

If you've hung around this blog for any amount of time, you know I love projects (knitting or otherwise) that look complicated... but really aren't!

When Mom first made the Disappearing Hour glass quilt, it looked crazy hard, and I just couldn't grasp how it went together. Then I saw the tutorial. I could totally do that!!!

I had an empty project box, so I figured the weekend was a good time to give it a whirl. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm using the Atelier de France layer cake which is full of wonderful reds and browns.
I wanted to practice first, so I grabbed one of the fabrics that didn't offer much contrast and probably wouldn't end up in the finished quilt.
It didn't go too badly. It really is pretty easy. If you can sew half-square triangles, four patches and nine patches - you can sew this block!

The one thing I did learn with the practice block, is that it's much easier if you trim your hourglass block to a size that's easily divisible by three. My practice block came out to 13 inches square before slicing, and it was tough to figure out exactly where 4 1/3 inches was on my ruler.  Squaring up to 12 3/4 inches meant  I could slice at 4 1/4 inches, which was much easier to work with.
After figuring that out, I churned out two "for realsies" blocks in under an hour.  While the block is easy, it does take some patience and paying attention (or you almost end up slicing your block at 3 1/4 inches by accident!). As a result, I think this one is going to be a bit of a long-term project. I'm going to try to do a few blocks every week until I run out of fabric. It will be worth it in the end though!

8 comments:

Tired Teacher said...

Nice job! I've admired this block technique but haven't taken the time to try it.

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen that pattern before. My sister is a quilter so I've seen a lot of them. This one is VERY pretty.

Have fun with your new project.

chrisknits said...

I love the sew and cut method to blocks like these. I have a disappearing 9 patch in mind, just need to work through the queue to get to it! Love your fabrics.

Delighted Hands said...

You did it! How pretty the blocks are and I can see that they will make a good secondary pattern when they are placed next to each other! Exciting block, thanks for sharing!

Vera said...

That is such a cool pattern! Love your fabrics too.

Araignee said...

Wowie! You are such a master at those pointy points. Those fabrics are to die for. I am so itching to get out my new kit and all those pretty fabrics but I need to clear the table a bit more first.

Judy S. said...

Nice work! It will be fun to see how they look all together! Lovely fabrics, too!

Eastside Cats said...

Cannot wait to see the finished product!