After a flurry of online activity, life once again got in the way of blogging but I am back again, this time with a block pattern for my Do Good Stitches circle.  You see in June I am the designated quilter which means I pick the colour scheme and block for my fellow DGS peeps to work with…

I never make this decision easily… I always ‘um and ah’ between a couple of block options… sometimes making test blocks to see what my idea looks like.   This month I settled on the colour scheme quickly…

and pulled these fabrics to match from my stash….

but struggled to pin down what sort of block I wanted to make.  I finally settled on a simple 12 inch block which Is called a Double T and dates back to 1882 I believe e…

To make one block you will need to cut:

This 12 inch block uses two different types of block components – flying geese and half square triangles (HST).  So lets start with the HST…

For these components you will need the two white 5 inch squares and the two green 5 inch squares.

Using a fabric marker (I use my trusty Frixon marker) mark a diagonal line down the center of both the white squares..

Place one white square and one green square pattern side together and then sew down both sides of the center line using a scant quarter inch…

Then cut down that center line using your rotary cutter…

You now have two half square triangle pieces….  iron the HSTs with the seams open.

Then trim your ironed HST to 4 1/2 inches square.  For each block you will need 4 half square triangle components.

Next component is the flying geese…and you can make these one of two ways – either using traditional piecing or paper piecing…  the cutting instructions above are for the traditional pieced version.  If you are paper piecing you can cut a little more generously – say about 1/4 inch more on all the geese pieces.

Lets start with the traditional version…. first mark up all of the 2 1/2 inch squares with the same diagonal line you used in the HSTs.

Place the small green squares pattern side down on the corner of your white triangle pieces.  Sew down your diagonal line…

Trim the excess corner fabric off your rectangle and press the green corner up on your block, pressing your seams open…

Place the second 2 1/2 inch square on the opposite side of your rectangle piece and again sew down the marked line, trim and press seams open.  You will need to make two of these geese blocks for each flying geese component…

If you would like to use paper piecing to make these components you can download the pattern for these 4 1/2 inch flying geese here… Flying Geese components

Once you have made your block components lay your block out like this….

I then sew the components together in rows…. and press the seams to the side, making sure that the bulky side of the geese is laying flat.

I then sew the rows together and viola you have a block…. and in a month or so I should have a collection of blocks from my fellow Do Good Stitches peeps which will become a pretty quilt top.