Hive 5 May Tutorial - The House That Jack Built for Michelle

Hello fellow Hive 5 quilters, Michelle from Wisconsin here! For the month of May, I'll have you make the 'House that Jack Built' block.

This is a modern on-point block that I've seen in a few places. I was inspired to choose this pattern after finding this bag (on the left) in the book The Shape of Japan - 750 Patchwork Patterns by Kumiko Fujita:

And from another source, here is the free tutorial I used as a basis for my block: https://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/house-jack-built-quilt-block.html

You can check out the Generations tutorial to see more detailed assembly photos, but keep in mind that my measurements are different (due to not using an on-point ruler), so please be sure to use the measurements I listed below.

Materials needed:

Color A 

- Two 15" x 1.5" strips* of black or charcoal

Color B 

- One 15" x 1.5" strip* of any light or bright color

*14" is the absolute minimum length, but I added 1" extra for safety

Color C (Background)

- One 4.5" square of light or medium gray

- Two 4" squares of the same light or medium gray

- One 3.5" square of the same light or medium gray 

Please no holiday or religious/political prints, otherwise anything goes, solid, prints, batiks etc.

Instructions:

Step 1:

Sew the long ends of the A and B strips together, making sure B is in the middle. You should end up with a 15" x 3.5" strip sandwich. Press towards the darker color (A).

Cut the sandwich into four 3.5" x 3.5" squares. 

Step 2:

Put the 3.5" gray (color C) square aside for now.

Cut the 4.5" gray square in half down both diagonals to make four small right triangles.

Cut the other two 4" gray squares in half along one diagonal to make four large right triangles in total.

You should have now have one 3.5" square, four large triangles, and four small triangles.

Step 3:

Take the ABA squares and the four small gray triangles. Sew the diagonal of a gray triangle to a black edge of each ABA square, to make four house-shaped units. Press.

Note that the triangle will stick out past the sides of the squares. That's correct, just make sure to center the triangle on top of the square before sewing (use a ruler or fold both in half + match the folds):

Step 4:

Tip: If you press towards gray in the next two steps, you can nest the seams easier when assembling the full block.

Take two houses and the C square. Sew the house 'bottoms' to two opposing edges of the square. 

Step 5: 

Take the remaining two houses and the four large triangles. For each house, sew the leg of a large triangle to both of the side edges of the house, lining up the flat edge. Make sure the triangles slope down and away from the house:

Step 6: 

You should now have 3 units- two identical triangular-shaped rows and one 'stretched hexagon' row.
Arrange the 3 units into rows to form a diamond:

Sew the 3 rows together. You can press however you want on this step, but personally I found it easiest to press away from the center row.

You're done! Your block should be somewhere around 9.25" square, but don't stress about the size (it likely won't be exact). Please send it to me like this, without trimming! I will trim your block myself to match the ones I've already made :)

Thank you and please let me know if something is unclear or if you have any questions!