Twilight Gardens - Block 4

Well, some of you may have wondered if I was ever going to get around to posting the 4th block of Twilight Gardens.  I apologize for the delay.  I was out of town at the beginning of the month, then right when I returned, I came down with a round of the flu that was the worst I've had in years. I am just now getting over it, and my energy level has been low for several days.

Fortunately, this block is the same pattern as that of Block 2, so I will not go into detail about the construction of the block, but I did want to share my fabric choices, and my reasoning.

Fabrics for Block 4

 Whereas Block 2 had a distinctly reddish overtone to the fabric colors and was warmer looking, I wanted this one to look a little different.  I guess this is just another way of making the block distinctive even though it is the same pattern.  I had quite a few cooler grayish tones available, and particularly, some with a bit of green color, so that is what I was aiming for with these fabrics. 

I still used black as my background and then choose a darker gray as my outer corners.  This sets the neutral gray as the tone for the block and leaves the lighter, more contrast fabrics as the focus of the star itself.  The outer star points are the lighter gray with the ticking pattern.  There are two of these fabrics (very similar) included in the kit for this quilt.  This one is the one that has a subtle gray-green cast, not the tan one.  I then follow the green theme by selecting the distinctly green primitive pattern with lines and stars in the weave.

The central star is made up of a lighter tan fabric for the center square (there are several similar ones in the kit that would all look good here), and a pale green fabric, with brown check, for the points. The background for the central star is a medium brown fabric with a square pattern in the weave.

 Block Construction

 Don't forget to trim down the quarter-square triangle units for this block to 3 1/2" square.  You can use any square ruler that is at least 3 1/2".  Line up the unit with the diagonal mark on your ruler. The center of the block should fall right at the 1 3/4" lines. Trim a small amount from the first two sides. Spin the block 180 degrees, then line up using the diagonal, and the 3 1/2" ruler lines.  Note that the center of the block should still fall at the 1 3/4" marks on the ruler.  Trim the last two sides of the unit.

The assembly of this block is the same as in Block 2.  I will mention an error in the pattern for block 4 - In the section "Making the Center Star Points"  the first paragraph should begin "With right sides together, layer a light 2" (d) square onto rectangle (c) as shown."

Also, In the section "Marking the Large Star Points", Just to clarify which pieces are being used,  when pairing up the fabrics for the Quarter-Square Triangle Units, you will be using pieces C, E, and two of piece D.

Other than that, the diagrams on the pattern page are correct, and the block should go together easily.

Remember that when doing the final block assembly, you can reduce bulk by pressing your seam allowances open rather than to one side.  This is always a little more time consuming, but in the case of this block, it does help to make the finished block lay flat.

Your finished block should measure 12 1/2" square.  You will notice as we proceed on with Block 5 that we are starting to see blocks with different outer measurements.  This is due to the irregular sashing panels that will be used between some of the blocks in the finished quilt.  We will talk more about this later.

Have fun with this one.

Steven