Honeymoon Quilt Block

The Honeymoon quilt block, with all this pointy-goodness, doesn't have to be hard. 

Quick-pieced QST and 8-at-a-time HST are the techniques we use to get'er done!

Give the sewn pair a quick press to set the seam. Then cut in half along the pencil mark (below, right).

Press the units open with SA towards the dark.

Time to mark again.

Position a straight line of your rule on the stitching line (red line) with the cutting edge of the ruler through the center. This ensures that you're quarter triangles are truly 90° at the center.

If you stitch perfect seams, the ruler will cut right through the middle of the points at the top and bottom.

Me? This first pair wasn't too bad.

But rarely do I stitch perfectly...especially not on the 14th, 15th or 100th pair. That's why I added an extra 1/2" to the cutting measurements of the #1 and #2 patches for these QSTs. 

Trimming to size is my secret weapon.

Yours, too?

Back to the task at hand. You only need to mark one of the two units.

Draw one diagonal line with a mark that shows along this center edge.

Now layer the two pairs, light fabric to dark fabric. I prefer to have the SA pressed and pointing toward the presser foot on top as I stitch—less chance the seam gets twisted as I sew.

Sew, again, 1/4" away from the marking on both sides.

I take a quick check at the sewing machine to make sure the center seams match.

To trim, you'll want a square ruler with a diagonal line through its corner. (I'm using my brand-spankin' new Quilters Select.)

Align this line with the diagonal seam in your QST. Adjust the ruler so that the Center Measurement is positioned over the center of the QST were all the points match.

Trim the two sides.

Now re-position your patch so the edges you just trimmed are aligned with the 3 1/2" lines, the 'Trim to' size in the chart, on your ruler (red arrows).  The diagonal ruler mark is directly on top of the diagonal SA (blue arrow).

Trim the last two sides.

If you'd cut your patches exactly to the dimensions in the chart, you'll use this 'Trim to' size to check that your blocks came out just right. Trim as needed.

After trimming, here are your QSTs.

Stitch 1/4" away from both sides of both markings for a total of four lines of stitching.

Referring to the chart below, find the Center Measurement that corresponds to your chosen Finished Block Size.

HST Dimensions
Finished Block Size	Center/Midpoint Measurement	Trim HST to…
6"	2 1/8"	1 1/2"
9"	2 5/8"	2"
12"	3 1/8"	2 1/2"

At your cutting mat, cut the #3/#4 in half vertically and horizontally using this center measurement to create four equal squares.

Then cut each square in half along the line you drew.

You now have eight HSTs.

Press with SA towards the dark.

Referring to the chart again, trim your HSTs to the perfect size. Here four are already trimmed.

With RST join the pairs as shown below.

The trick to SA that swirl all in the same direction is to stitch the patches together all exactly the same...

...for these units stitch with #6 on top, SA pointing towards the presser foot. Every.Single.Time.

Press with the units closed, then twirl the SA around the center.

You will probably need to loosen a few stitches—don't cut them, just loosen—so that the seam will lay flat.

This is what it looks like close up.

Twirl the SAs by loosening the stitches at the center. This helps distribute bulk at center of these corner units.

Twirling SAs has another benefit. If you choose to make a quilt out of Honeymoon quilt blocks set edge to edge, then all the SAs nest making construction so much easier. So much less bulky.

And finally, after these four corners are sewn, check your accuracy using the chart below.

Corner Dimensions
Finished Block Size	Dimension from edge to edge
6"	2 1/2"
9"	3 1/2"
12"	4 1/2"

Sew the Honeymoon units into rows. 

All SA are pressed toward the QSTs.

Stitch the rows together pinning, as needed, to hold the patches in position.

Click here to brush up on your pinning techniques for perfect points.

At last, our Honeymoon quilt block is complete!

The backside of our Honeymoon block so you can see all the seams.

See how the SAs on the top and bottom are pressed in opposite directions? Same for the left and right sides?

If you choose to set your blocks edge-to-edge, those SAs will all nest—making it much easier to assemble the top. That's the added  advantage of swirling the SAs.

Sweet!