I was asked to make a quilt for a baby boy and wanted to use one of my favourite blocks. It's not my design, I'm afraid I can't remember its origins, though. I have called it the magic square block, and I think you will see why. First, as always I chose a selection of fabrics to work with, these are from our lovely Fabric Corner in Lincoln Market
As you can see in the top photos, the centres of all the blocks are from the same fabric, with the exception of the centre block where I embroidered the baby's birth details. So I started by cutting 8 x 4 1/2" squares of the sock fabric, and then I cut 4 x 4 1/2" squares each of the 2 fabrics to be the 1st 'round', and I chose the lighter of the yellow and blue. I did a test block with scrap fabrics first to make sure I had enough fabric for the 3rd round, which measures 9 1/4" and gives finished block size of 12"
Draw diagonal lines on the wrong side of the next 'round' fabrics TIP: don't draw the lines too dark on light fabrics, unless you are sure they will wash out, because they will show through.
With right sides together, stitch all around the outside of the square, using a 1/4" seam allowance. Tip: Stitch from the side shown in the picture below, because this square has been cut accurately and it will help to keep the block square.
(Yes I know, this is the dark yellow, I forgot to take a photo !)
Then, taking care to only cut through the 'next round' fabric' in this case the spotty fabric, snip the centre with a sharp pair of scissors and cut along the diagonal lines up to the stitching. Tip: I pulled the fabric away from each other in the centre and snipped the spotty fabric folded against itself to make an opening in the centre of the diagonals, to reduce the risk of cutting through your centre block x
When you have cut along the diagonal lines, open out and press, and you have finished this round.
There is no need to cut off the little points at the edges
At this stage, if you have been using a 1/4" seam allowance, you should have a 5 1/2" square. So now you need to cut 5 1/2" squares from the next round colour, draw diagonals on the wrong side, place it right sides together with the previous block, and continue exactly as before. I decided to go for the darker spotty fabric on my blocks
Using a 1/4" foot/seam allowance, the next blocks measured 7", then 9.25" and the final block was 12".
I only needed 9 blocks, which I sashed together to create my quilt xx
I will be very grateful to get any feed back, photos https://www.facebook.com/RylandCrafts. All the fabrics for the quilt top were bought from the lovely http://www.fabriccornerlincolnmarket.co.uk/