February Full Stop - Quotations

Quotation marks are used to identify direct spoken words of any individual.   They appear at the beginning and end of the attributed words, and therefore must generally be used in pairs.  They may also be used to mark the titles of certain short compositions, or to indicate "words used as words".  This use of "air quotes"  has become a popular way to delegitimize a word.  Imagine that your meal was cooked by a "professional" chef.  

These units may be made from 2.5 inch squares and half square triangles.  That is the way that I made them initially, but after seeing the finished block, I decided that I would make them with fewer seam allowances.  There is a bit more waste this way, but it is a good tradeoff for one less seam.  

For each pair of quotes, you will need: 

•  4 rectangles of yellow fabric, each cut 4.5 by 2.5 inches. 
• 4 squares of background fabric cut to 2.5 inches.   

Layer the squares on top of the rectangles, lined up with the bottom edge.  You will need to draw a line in pencil diagonally from corner to corner on the background square.   Notice that two of the lines angle up from left to right and two angle down.   

Next, sew along the drawn line on each of the 4 units.   

Flip these triangles down toward the corner and press.  Make sure the edges line up nicely before trimming away the waste triangles behind the block.   

Now just add a few dividing strips from background fabric.  The two small segments are cut 1.5 by 4.5 and the wide bit between the two pairs is 2.5 by 4.5 inches.   Now you have one pair of quotation marks.   

I made 4 pairs of quotation marks, although I'm wondering now if that is too many.  Sewed all together, that makes the rom 58 inches wide, which is pretty close to my target width of 64 inches for the finished quilt.  It is a simple row though, so I think the length will work out well.  Especially given that the lighter shades are not likely to overwhelm the quilt.   Here is Lizzie inspecting the two finished rows so far.  She seems to approve.   

I'll be back tomorrow with another version of the same block, with more seams, but more shape as well.  It is a trade off of course, depending on how complicated you are feeling.