Jacob's Ladder Quilt

Yesterday at Sew Savvy Kari shared some great tips for making four-patche and half square triangle units, which can then be put together to make this Jacob's Ladder quilt.

I had never made four patches this way, so I found it fascinating.  First she put two five inch squares right sides together and sewed a quarter inch seam down two opposing sides.  then she cut this in half (at 2 1/2 inches), NOT cutting through the seams, cutting parallel to the seams.  Now you have two small strip sets basically.

You then place these right sides together, butting the seams (which were pressed towards the dark fabric) and having the light on dark and dark on light.  Again, sew a quarter inch down two opposing sides, and again cut in half parallel to the seams.  You end up with two four-patch units!  I was so impressed!

For the half square triangle units, she ironed a crease on the diagonal of one of the five inch square pieces (rather than marking with a pencil), then sewed a quarter inch on both sides of the crease.  Cut on the crease and you end up with two half square triangle units.

 I had done that method before, but Kari also showed another method for making half square triangle units which I had not tried before.  She put the two five inch squares right sides together and sewed a quarter inch on all four sides, then cut twice, on both diagonals and ended up with four half square triangle units!  These were smaller so would not have worked with this quilt, but still a great way to make HST units!

I love going to classes or meetings and learning new things :)

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Here is the finished quilt, which is very cool and complex looking, even though it is only made up of HST units and four-patch units!  I may just have to give this a try :)