Farmer's Wife QAL Broken Dishes Cheat (can be used with other blocks too)

Ok I'm not sure about you all, but I really don't want to cut out my pieces individually nor do I want to make all those templates.

First off here is a little cheat you can use to measure your templates.

1. Grab a ruler. I am using a 4.5 inch square with a 45 degree diagonal line through it. On some of the templates, you'll need a ruler that measures to the 1/16th of an inch.

2. Place the ruler over your template. When I first measured my templates I only measured one side of the triangles and "guessed" where the corners were shaped. That would be WRONG! Sadly I measured about half of the templates before I realized this. The picture below shows how to place your ruler. You want to place the edge of the ruler along one short side of your triangle and line up the 45 degree line with the longer diagonal line. The size of your Half Square Triangle (HST) will be where the bottom line hits. In this case, it will be a 2-3/8 inch HST.

Now for the cheat for the Broken Dishes block.

1. Measurements for HST. Find and measure the template (which will be the one we did above). Remember 2 HSTs equal 1 square (so if it calls for 16 HSTs, you will need 8 squares).

2. Cut out your squares. DON'T cut them into triangles yet!

3. Draw lines. Take one color stack of squares and draw a 45 degree diagonal line on one side of them.

4. Sew the Squares. You will sew the squares twice. Using the line you drew, sew 1/4" on each side of it. (see picture below).

5. Cut triangles apart. Cut down the line that you drew. (see picture above)

6. Press triangles.

7. Trim those dog ears. Using your ruler. place the diagonal line against the seam and make sure you also have even lines. This square will happen to be a 2 inch square. It is very important that you make sure that when you do this that you pay attention to not trim too much off. Do your math! There will be 4 of these in a row (which will equal 8 inches) minus the seams (1/2 inch per seam would equal 1-1/2 inches) and your finished measurement would be 6-1/2 inches.

8. Lay out design. Lay out the pieces on your cutting table as they are in the pattern.

9. Sew block together. Remember to pay attention to where the seam should be and line up those seams!

*You can lay your pieces right sides together and folder over 1/4 inch to see if the seam will line up.

*When I have more than one seam to line up I use pins to hold the seams together while I work on the others and when I sew it.

*Ta Da :-)

*Press seams to the darker fabric side. When lining up 2 sets, press seams in opposite directions so that there isn't one big bulge.

10. After you've finished your block, make sure that it is 6-1/2 inches square. If you need to, trim off extra, but find the center line and work from there that way your block will be centered when you put your quilt top together.