D4P - Puss in the Corner Tutorial

Have you ever had a million things to do and some of them had to be done yesterday? Yeah, same here but I have become obsessed with this new disappearing 4-patch block and the chores kinda fell to the wayside this weekend...

Start by making four patches with 2 squares of 2 different fabrics. I'm using 2.5" squares but it will work with any size squares. Remember to pinwheel your seams at every chance, which will make it super easy to put your blocks together at the end.

Let's start with a little math so you can convert this project to any size 4-patch. Essentially you will be cutting the right most squares in half based on its original size. I cut 1.0" to the right of the center seam because half of 2.5" is 1.25" and .25" was already used in the seam allowance. The first time I made these blocks I cut it backwards - it was the only time I cut them wrong. LOL.

Take the piece you just cut off the right side and sew it to the left side of the 4 patch as shown above in the black and teal block.

After pressing and pinwheeling those new seam intersections, rotate the block 90 degrees and again cut 1.0" to the right of the center seam. Sew the piece to the left side of the 4 patch. Tada!!! You have a Puss in the Corner block!!

There are a lot of opportunities to fussy cut and play with stripes in this block. If there is a fussy cut block I don't want to cut in to I place that in the upper left before I start cutting. If I am playing with stripes, when making the original 4-patch I make sure the stripes are perpendicular to each other if I want them to radiate out from the center of the final block or I run them parallel if I want them finishing in different directions.

If you remember to pinwheel all of your seam intersections (both while making the blocks and joining them together), by rotating a block by 90 degrees, you can nest all of your seams. This block is so easy that I think you'll be able to do them with your eyes closed in no time flat. This weekend I whipped up a few blocks and also readied a dozen or so 4-patches to use as leader/enders.

Saturday was town wide yard sale day in my hometown and I happened across 2 of these tins for a whopping 25 cents each - my new blocks fit perfectly :)

Friday night I picked up two "candy bars" packs at my LQS cut from the 1930s fabrics they carry. This doll quilt/cat mat came together super fast. 30's fabrics are a little wishywashy for me but I still think the quilt is cute and can't wait to see what my brighter L/E blocks become someday...

Please let me know if you have any questions on this tutorial and I would love to see what you make with the blocks...Have fun!