I'm calling it Barnie's Block

for Barnie the Beaver.........that great Canadian symbol that works so hard and deserves the recognition.

I have had a request for the newest member of our family.  This is Sylvester........the latest animal addition who now has his forever home at our son and daughter-in-law's.

I was told he needed a quilt for the foot of the bed where he has decided he is going to sleep every night.  I asked what he would like and this was the response
 He said he wants a tapestry type quilt with a forest scene with lots of colourful birds and gray, black and red squirrels. Must have a cobblestone path with a park bench surrounded by pigeons feeding on popcorn. A small kind to the left side with ducks, geese and one swan all eating bread crumbs. Sylvester say's this would make him the happiest kitty in the whole wide world GRAMMA !!!🐈

I was folding the laundry one Saturday and a thought came to me.  What if I took a 10" block and cut it on the diagonal and then a four patch and cut it on the diagonal........then I sewed them together.  The only fabric I had that came close to his request was this one.  He said that was okay..........yes, we talk to our animals......a lot!

Love the way they did the colour chart on this fabric!

I doodled it out on a piece of paper to see if it would work.  I didn't want to waste my fabric.

I had just purchased an orange fabric that picked up the fox in the design and this brown worked well with it too.  Due to a lack of the orange I cut the smaller squares 5" x 5".......the large square, which is my focal fabric,  9 1/2"

I then made my four patch from the orange and brown squares.  My first pressing was to the dark side and the final seam I pressed open.

Lay the focal fabric down RIGHT SIDE facing you.

Then lay your four patch on top making sure it is lying flat and the corners all meet.  You can pin if you want too.

Using your ruler, mark a line from one corner to the other.  I pinned the pieces together after I had the line marked on the fabric.

You now sew the two pieces together.  Using your 1/4" foot, sew on one side of the line

and then the other side.

Press to set the seams

 With your rotary cutter and your ruler, cut on the line!

When you are done, you will have two pieces that look like this

and then you get to play with layouts.  

You will not get crisp points on this block.  It doesn't bother me, it will bother other people.  That is the design of this block

If you choose layout number one the corners will not match.  Does it matter?  Not to me.

Layout number 2 has the blocks going all in the same direction.  

For layout #3, I opted to do the sewing and cutting through the orange blocks instead of the brown.  

This is layout number 4.   Move them around a bit and you get so many different looks to one block.  Which did I choose?  

Just in case you are wondering, Barnie is on the fabric twice.  Here is just one of him.  If you scroll back to the top you can see him again.

All done and Misty approved.  I think Sylvester will be happy with it.