Hive 6 September Tutorial: Pam's Improv Spinners and Hourglasses

I impressed myself by sketching my block and making my sample squares in MARCH even though I’m Queen Bee in September.  It's a rarity for me to be so beforehand with any craft project, so YAY ME.  

Completed block

I wanted to come up with something easy, scrappy, and modern, and this block fills those requirements.  The 12 ½ inch (unfinished size) block is made of four foundation-pieced units, with triangles sewn and flipped to opposite corners of each unit.  Each unit has one blade of the spinner (a tall pointy right triangle) in one corner and one segment of the hourglass (or quarter-square triangle) block in the opposite corner.  There are no measurements given for the triangles, just eye it. I want a kind of wonky look.  It IS important to have the spinner blades and hourglass corners in the correct orientation on the squares, so the spinners will all spin in the same direction. 

COLORS:  For the foundation squares, use any light neutral or low volume fabrics (preferably no bright white).  To make my four test blocks, I picked out some light gray and stone solids and a few beige and gray low volume prints.  For the spinner blade and hourglass triangles, use a variety of bright modern prints or solids (preferably no batiks).  I was able to use up some odd-shaped scraps for the triangles.

Random bright scraps are good

Neutral solid or low volume background squares

Use up odd sized scraps

HOW TO MAKE: 

FABRICS: To make one block, you’ll need four 6 ½ inch foundation squares of the neutral solid or low volume fabrics, preferably all different fabrics.  If you want to use the same foundation fabric for all four units, that’s fine, just don’t sew them together into a block when you’re done. That way, I can mix and match your units with other ones to get a scrappy random look.  You’ll need a selection of bright scraps for the triangles.

SPINNER BLADES:  For each unit, place one bright scrap over the lower right-hand corner (THIS ORIENTATION IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE THE SPINNERS GOING THE SAME DIRECTION) of the foundation to make the tall spinner blade.  I placed my scrap face up on the foundation to “rehearse” it to make sure it was more than big enough to cover the corner.  I didn’t want the top of the tall triangle to reach the top of the foundation block, and I wanted the base of the triangle to be a couple of inches wide, but I didn’t measure anything.  Make sure the edge of the scrap that will be sewn down is straight, because you’ll be using that edge (the hypotenuse of the triangle) as your guide when sewing. 

Rehearse to make sure the scrap covers corner

After rehearsing my scrap fabric, I flipped the scrap over, making sure that the ends of the scrap extended at least ¼ inch beyond the foundation, and then sewed the straight edge of the scrap down to the foundation, lining the straight edge of the scrap up with the edge of the presser foot. 

Stitch 1/4" from edge of colorful fabric

After sewing, flip the triangle over and press it towards the corner, then turn the square over to press the back. 

Fold toward corner and press

Trim the excess scrap fabric with the back of the foundation square facing up, trimming evenly with the edges of the foundation.  

Trim wrong side up

DO NOT TRIM THE FOUNDATION FABRIC FROM UNDER THE TRIANGLE.  Leave that in place to give the block stability when sewing the units together. 

Leave foundation fabric in place

One finished spinner blade

HOURGLASS CORNERS:  The hourglass corner triangles are made the same way as the spinner blade triangles, in the opposite corner from the spinner blade.  For the hourglass corners, I aimed for a triangle with two equal sides, but again I didn’t measure, just eyeballed and placed a scrap, then stitched and flipped as with the spinner blade.

Rehearsing hourglass corner

 

Finished blade/hourglass unit

Make four of these units, then sew them together to make one 12 ½ inch block.  If you used the same foundation fabric for all four units, don’t sew them together, so I can combine them with other units to get a variety of foundations in each block.

Four units laid out before sewing

THERE ARE NO MISTAKES:  Despite my rehearsing and eyeballing, some of my scraps did not cover the corner of the foundation.  When that happened (more than once) I just found another small piece of fabric and stitched and flipped it to cover up the naked part of the foundation. 

Oops!

Fixed the mistake

PRESSING:  I found that it was best to press the seams to one side rather than open when sewing the four units together.

LAYOUT:  When I finished making my units, I played around with them to see which ones looked good together, and then sewed them into four blocks for this demo.  I haven’t sewn the four blocks together, but I laid them out to show how the wonky hourglass block is created where four blocks meet. 

I hope you enjoy making this block.  Happy stitching, Hivemates!