Tips, Tricks, and Tuts Tuesday - Charm Hourglass Blocks

The last two weeks on Tips, Tricks, and Tuts Tuesday, I've shown you some block units to make from 5" charm squares.  This week on Tips, Tricks, and Tuts Tuesday we making hourglass blocks.  The other two blocks, 4-patches and half square triangles will work well together as they both finish 4 1/2".  These hourglasses are a bit smaller.  They will finish 3 1/2", which is still a great size to work with and use with other block units.  If you follow Bonnie Hunter, you know her scrap system incorporates both 4 1/2" and 3 1/2" units or blocks.  You can read about how she does it here.

To begin, you will pair two 5" charm squares together, right sides together and make a half square unit like we made last week.  If you need a refresher or missed it, you can read about it here.  As you can see, I already pressed my half square units when I realized I hadn't taken a picture yet so that's why they look like this.

Now place the two half square triangle units together, right sides together and opposite of each other.  You will place them directly on top of each other when you do this.  In this picture I staggered them so you could so the opposites.

 When you flip back a corner, you should see the makings of the of the hourglass block.  Line them up by nesting the seams together.  The seams will lock together and magically match when sewn again.

Now draw a diagonal line from corner to corner.

Sew 1/4" from each side of the drawn line and cut apart.  You can check your intersection to see if the seams match before cutting but if the seams lock together, they will match.

Open and press to one side.  You will now have 2 hourglass units.  Square them to 3 1/2".  I like to use the rulers from Eleanor Burns Quilt In A Day to square them as they have an X on them and it's easy to line the X up with the seam lines.  They come in several handy sizes.  I have 2 1/2", 3 1/2" 4 1/2" and 6 1/2" in my collection.

This method will give you 2 hourglass blocks.

I have one more unit to show you next week on Tips Tricks and Tuts Tuesday with charm squares and then I'll share some layout ideas using them.