Saturday, 14 February 2015

An 'Exploding Pachyderm' ?...

First, you have to find the pachyderm....


See, the hole in the herd? ( Or parade ) ... That was the one picked to play with.  A 5 inch square was cut out but the 'square' had to be turned on an angle to get 'trunk to tail' in... aka... fussy cut.  

The next piece of fabric is an equal square, in this case, 5 inches.  If you fold the fabric to find the centre, give it a small snip with your scissors in the middle...


Next, sew the right sides together around the outside.  You will use the small hole to cut from corner to corner with your scissors after you've sewn around the outer edge.


Oh, the pachyderm is emerging or 'exploding' from the block!    Press the block out and lay the block face down on another piece of fabric and cut that square out, put the snip in the centre and sew around the edge again.



I actually forgot to put the snip in!  I folded to get the centre crease and then pulled the fabric apart and   put the snip in and again, cut from corner to corner diagonally.  Press open.


Looking good! Next step, put the block face down on the next piece of fabric...


Again, cut the square of fabric the same size of the block.  Put the snip in the centre (because it is easier) .


Sew right sides together again, press and reveal the pachyderm...


You can keep going until you get to desired size.  I chose to stop.  Trim the block. This one trimed out to 10 inches.  It's a pretty neat way to make a 'square in a square' quilt block.  Some describe it as 'exploding' or  an easy pineapple block.  

This technique will not give  sharp corners, the edges are blunted by the seam lines but it's such a fun and easy way to make the block.  Everytime you press the block, a new look is revealed! 

I've been playing with this technique on a rectangle rather than a square....


I got a diamond, then bat wings! Oops!  


In the next post or so, I'll show how I 'fixed' the bat wing problem!  I really liked the diamond shape and wanted to keep it. 

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