A little while ago I was asked by the fabulous Emily from HandmadebyEmily to curate a selection of 5 colours from the extensive Kona solids range for her Aussie Kona Club.

Having not really worked with Kona solids before I did have a bit of trouble choosing from over 300 colours, but as I love Halloween colours and tones I decided to run with it and see what happened.

I chose more muted tones rather than my usual brights and worked out a block that could be used for any colour way but still had enough of a Halloween ‘feel’ for me – using the hourglass blocks to represent little bats. 🙂

Instructions are below to make one block but I will be making a few to make a table runner.

Materials
Kona Solids: Parchment, Peapod, Charcoal, Orange and Eggplant

Cutting:
From Parchment cut one 3 1/2in strip and cross cut four 3 1/2in squares
From Peapod cut one 4 1/2in strip and cross cut five 4 1/2in squares
From Charcoal cut one 4 1/2in strip and cross cut five 4 1/2in squares
From Orange cut one 3 1/2in strip and cross cut four 3 1/2in squares
From Eggplant cut one 3 1/2in strip and cross cut eight 3 1/2in squares

Hourglass Blocks

Pin the right sides of one solid Peapod square and one Charcoal square together. Draw a line across the diagonal on the lighter fabric. Stitch a 1/4in on both sides of the drawn line. Cut along the pencil line. Press the seams to the darker fabric. Pin the right sides of the opposing fabrics together, abutting the seams. Draw a line across the diagonal. Stitch a 1/4in on both sides of the drawn line. Cut along the pencil line. Press the seams. Makes 10, but you only need 9 units per block. Trim blocks to 3 1/2in square, checking the angles with a 45degree marking on your ruler.

  

  

  

  

Next lay out all of your squares in the following rows –

Piece together in rows. Then once all rows are pieced, press the seams in alternating directions per row. Eg. rows 1, 3 and 5 press to the left and rows 2 and 4 press to the right.

Pin rows together abutting the seams and join.

Press the seams and trim up the block to ensure a 15in finish raw edge to raw edge.

Ta da!

As I’m writing this tutorial I’m thinking that now I might even embroider some little Halloween motifs on the Parchment squares. I have a few in my stash that will work perfectly. 🙂

For those who are interested in the runner or even taking it further and making a larger quilt –

As you can see the secondary and even tertiary designs made by this block create interesting effects. I’d love to see what everyone makes so feel free to post me pictures.

I love making this block and curating a set of solids for Emily – loads of fun!

Happy Quilting!

Marni x