More mystery quilt thoughts

I have now cut out all the pieces for the mystery quilt I told you about yesterday.

I predict it is going to have four large squares of the patterned material as feature squares. I predict the squares are going to be on point, and that around the edge are going to be large neutral coloured half-square triangles. I predict it is going to have squares like these:



made by joining a greenish triangle (in my colour scheme), with a yellowish or neutral coloured triangle.

I'd be interested to see if I was right.

To understand how I worked that out, you need to know the fastest way to make a square like the diagram above.

If you want a square made from one material, which is x inches square, you cut out an (x + 1/2) inch square - the extra half is for the seam allowances.

However if you want the same size square made up of two triangles, the fastest way is to cut out two squares which are each (x + 7/8) inches square.

You draw a diagonal line on the back of one them, then sew straight seams a scant 1/4 inch from the line. You cut along the line, then iron them open.

Hey presto, you have two squares which are made of two triangles. The first time you do it, it is almost like magic.

(I checked the sums when I was first told this method, and they do work, to a reasonable level of accuracy. Making two squares is easier then making one.)


Back to the mystery quilt: some of the squares we were told to cut out were (x + 1/2) inches, so they are fairly obviously the right size. But we also told to cut out a huge number of 3 7/8 inch squares, and when I did the maths, there are the same number of green/patterned squares as yellow/neutral squares. The oddity was the 6 7/8 inch squares - they were only in the neutral colour, so maybe we were going to sew them together and then cut them up, but it seems more logical that they would be cut in half for the edges, which means the other bloks would be on point.

In other news: I have sewn some leaves together. I have done no knitting for days.