"Family Ties" CiL Block Drive

Hello quilters! It's time for a new Covered in Love block drive. We run these block drives every three months to create quilts for dying patients in Texas hospitals.  Anyone can participate and you can make as few or as many blocks as you like.  If you need the address to send blocks please email [email protected].  This drive will run July-September. Now, onto the actual block!

This time around we will be doing a version of the free "Family Ties" pattern from Riley Blake. I just resized it to make a 12" block.  We will be using the color scheme from the palette below from Design Seeds. The "darks" are aqua, true blue, navy, red, maroon, light red (but not pink), and the "lights" are very light sky blue, light grey, and you can add white.  You can see an example of a quilt my do. good stitches circle made from this same color scheme a few years ago here (it's the second one down).

For each block you will need to cut (4) 7.5" squares, (2) light and (2) dark, plus (4) 2.5" squares, (2) light and (2) dark.  These measurements give you extra so you can trim down to size later. (There are only 2 light squares in my photo, it should be 4, that was a mistake). Remember that you can flip over fabrics and use the back side to make them lighter.

Mark a diagonal line on the back of your large light squares, match each one with a dark square, and sew 1/4" on both sides of the line. Cut apart and press to make (4) half square triangles (aka HSTs), square these up to 6.5".  Also cut all the small squares diagonally.

Trim a triangle off the corners on the outside of the HSTs by aligning the 45 degree line on your ruler with the side of the block and placing the corner of the block where the 1" line and 45 degree line intersect.  Then sew one of the triangles from the small squares into place, sewing a dark triangle onto the light side of the HST and vice versa. Press the seams (I recommend pressing open) and trim again to 6.5".

If you're making more than one block you can shuffle around the sub-units to create more variety. Arrange (4) 6.5" blocks with the dark small triangles toward the center, so it makes a light-colored ring, and sew together.  I did adjust the measurements after I made my block to make the small triangles even smaller, so don't be surprised if yours looks a little different from mine.

The block should finish at 12.5" square. Since it has bias edges all along the outside please do sew a line of stay stitching, with a long stitch length, 1/8" from the edge all around. It will help them keep their shape until they are sewn into the final quilt.

And that's it! I hope this will be a fun block for you.  It's a take on our usual summer red-white-and-blue drive with a more narrow color scheme. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the blocks you make! If you want to see previous CiL drives and the quilts we've made together click here. 

Obligatory cat photos. Mom's dog put a hole in his lambchop toy and I brought it over to repair. Fudge was surprisingly into it.