soscrappy: Monkey Wrench

I have a plan laid out for a Monkey Wrench block this week. I was going to get to it earlier, but I'm still waiting for everything to settle down. I've managed to find all the essentials after the move. Socks, underwear, toothpaste.... Things are still finding permanent homes, and I'm sure there will be a bit of rearranging as we figure out how to organize everything. I'm working half days at school this week so I can't quite dig in and devote an entire day to anything. It will all get done in time though. For now everything is livable enough. I'm sharing my sewing space with Anna for now, so she is going to let me move in for a few minutes and get everything sewn up. Fortunately, tiny blocks don't take up much time at all, so I won't disrupt her for long. I'll be back shortly with all the details and some step by steps.

There are many options for making half square triangles. I'm usually a fan of the easy angle ruler, but tonight I thought that cutting squares might be easier. The finished sub-units will be 1.75 inches. The official rule says that you should add 7/8 of an inch to that measurement for cutting size. I tend to cut in even sizes and square up later, so I cut mine to 3 inches instead.
Cutting:
2 squares of blue fabric 2 5/8 inches
2 squares of background fabric 2 5/8 inches
one strip of blue fabric 1 3/8 inches by at least 6 inches
one strip of background fabric 1 3/8 inches by at least 6 inches
one square (not pictured) of background fabric 1.5 inches

Draw a line down the center of each square of background fabric. Place each square right sides together with a blue square.

Sew a quarter of inch on either side of this drawn line for both squares. At the same time, place your two strips right sides together and sew them together as well.

Cut on your drawn line to separate your half square triangle blocks from one another. Each set will yield to half square triangles. If you cut yours over-sized like I did, trim them up to 2 1/4 inches square.

While you are at the ironing board, pres your strip set open with the seam facing the dark fabric. From this set, you will cut 4 pieces which are each 1.5 inches each.

From this point you are just making a nine patch. Arrange the HST units in the corners with the dark fabric pointing toward the center. Place the 1.5 inch units along the edges with the dark fabric pointing toward the center. The final piece is the 1.5 inch square of background fabric.

Now it is just a matter of sewing these pieces together as you would any nine patch. I like to fold the second row over the first and chain stitch by columns. You could also sew it into rows instead and then sew the rows together.