Scintillating Scraps . .

. . . was the title of Jan's workshop last September and I have borrowed friends' dies to cut hundreds of HST's which combine to make a 3" finished square. The block is a nine patch with a single dark central  square and six dark/light HST's and six dark/medium HSTs. The darks were straightforward but I found lights/mediums tricky to sort. So much white in scraps makes me uneasy!
The idea is to arrange half the blocks one way and alternate locks the other way up. I have now made 38 blocks, my A set. I need 72 in all 36 of each though I've a couple of spares. I shall now embark on my second set made from different fabrics so there shouldn't be two the same touching and the pressing of seams will alternate too.

These blocks are arranged the same way up.

These are alternated so the mediums "weave" through the lights.

HST's: the four patch version

Simplest classic layout

The four by four 4-patch version of a 12" HST block lends itself to lots of  arrangements. This time the squares are cut 4" and after sewing trimmed to 3.5" unfinished to finish 3". If you didn't want to trim you would cut squares with 7/8"  added to the finished size.
Value (light and shade) plays a major role in the appearance of these blocks. I made up a set of scrappy 3" + seams HST's and set them out in different ways all making use of negative/positive effects. Secondary patterns will form when blocks are set side by side either in the same light/dark arrangements or reversed. These endless possibilities added to endless fabric choices are what makes patchwork fun and so so fascinating.

"Lozenge" layout which will form secondary pattern when
set side by side.

"On point" squares

A star

A star with "envelope" corners

Variegated flying geese

Diagonals which can be turned this way and that.

Easy Angle

Having done a session on Those Special Rulers with Quay Quilters I am doing a "corner" at Oast Quilters January meeting - four 20 min. sessions on the trot so have been sewing samples from the practice pieces Quay Quilters cut. Two birds with one stone, in fact three as I'll make a teenage Project Linus charity quilt from them. The Cherrywood fabrics give a very arty look to the finished pieces, I think. Super colours.

Easy Angle

Today has been vey productive. Yesterday I sandwiched three charity quilts and today I machine quilted one of them. In the evening it was my turn to do a presentation for Quay Quilters and I'd chosen "Special rulers" as my subject intending to teach myself as much as other group members as most have been little used and some were sealed in the original packaging. First off however was one I have always used, the EZ Easy Angle which enables you to cut half square triangles from the same size strips as the corresponding squares - very useful for jelly rolls when you don't have the option of cutting 2 7/8" squares in half. Also if you layer the strips right sides together you can just pick up the paired pieces and sew - must be the quickest way.
For my demo I was making 3" finished units so cut my strips 3.5" inches wide.
And I've now added a picture of a sample block composed entirely of HST's made from Cherrywood fabrics.