Sunday, April 24, 2022

KMQG Block of the Month 2022: Block 3, ModSquared


April's Block of the Month is called "ModSquared' and comes from the Modern Quilt Guild. You must be a member of the MQG to access this pattern. Login to the MQG site, click MQG Resource Library, and search "ModSquared."

It's a pretty quick pattern to cut and sew up, but there are a few things to keep in mind:
  • Use a scant 1/4" seam! This may be a good time to test your seam by measuring to make sure it is scant and not over 1/4" inch. A generous seam will produce a smaller block and will definitely mess with the square in a square in this block (more on that below).
  • HSTs: When you cut and sew the half square triangles, you will end up with extra HSTs that you can use in one of your other blocks. So you may want to cut and sew one block at a time to reduce waste, or make 4 blocks instead of 3 and keep the extra to see if you want to swap it into your finished layout in place of another block.
  • Square in a square: The pattern says to cut the inside square 3 1/4", but if you want to preserve the points in your square in a square, you need to cut the inside square 3 1/8". (That's one of the two light squares in the pattern. The outer triangles still come from a 2 3/4" square as the pattern directs.) Square in a square is not a forgiving block, though, so be aware that you will have basically nothing to trim it down to size (you'll just trim off the triangle points). We recommend pressing with starch before measuring and (barely) trimming the block to the 4 1/4" size indicated by the pattern.