As part of my quilting journey, I've been dissecting blocks and creating some excel sheets to serve as reference materials. This nebbish pursuit involves breaking down the finished and unfinished/cut/trimmed elements to create an easy reference for myself.
For example, in this post I discussed the Sawtooth Star. I then created an excel worksheet that allowed me an easy reference for any size Sawtooth Star that I wanted to make (to include the flying geese measurements). Given the composition of the block, a 16 patch, you can cut about any size block that you like. I used 5 - 20" finished block sizes in 1/2" increments with no weird stuff unless you count 8ths of an inch weird. I don't. It is on the ruler, and no reason to fear a measurement if you have a mark for it!
💣 However, having said all of that, the flying geese measurements end up in 8ths for height...and that makes trimming by finding a 45 degree angle (which does not exist on any ruler) to square up)
Why? You might reasonably ask. Because it is basically a 16 patch broken down to the basic elemental unit, any size you like will yield you cuts that you can make with an imperial ruler which has units of measure of 1/8th increments.
Now let's consider an Ohio Star:
This block is a 9 patch. The smallest block that you can make that has usable measurements is 4.5". If you make an 18 inch block you can put a 6" middle square Ohio Star insertion. Click on image to make larger.
As you can see there are limited block sizes that you can make, and I've included them here. Do you know why? The block is a square. It is a nine patch. Accordingly, the square root of 9 is 3. So any block size that is divisible by 3 that gives you a mark on your ruler will give you a block yield. (In truth, I've never really thought about this until I did this.)
As I complete my work, I will make these available in PDF to download. For the moment, I wanted to point out relationships that were not so self evident to me, and maybe not you either. As you think about your own quilt development, you can make choices for block construction and how to fit them into your quilt design.
This Ohio Star, like any, can have mix and match components on the corner blocks and center blocks to yield interesting variations. For example, you can add a HST for the corners and echo the color in one part of the HST:
You are limited only by your imagination and of course...the limitation of math (laws of squares for square blocks) coupled with your ruler measurements!
Here is a great resource for looking at different types of "patches" and blocks called Patchwork Square.
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