Hen & Chicks September Block 2 - Quatrefoil

 So here is my confession, this whole Rainbow Scrap Challenge thing that I do is really just a quest for new inspiration. I am always on the lookout for my next project or block. I was happy to stumble across this Quatrefoil block on Crazy by Design and knew that it would work perfectly for Hen & Chicks. Most of the information that I found about the block was from Missouri Star Quilt company, but there were enough other references and history of the block available that I felt OK to post it here. There are some great Youtube videos, but most of the Missouri Star blocks are just so BIG compared to what I usually do.  Giant blocks are great for finishing quilts fast, but that it no longer my goal at this stage in my quilt journey. 

This is a block that would be great for an entire quilt. Just one great focus patterned print with a few different accent colors would come together beautifully, The accent colors would create a great secondary pattern in multiple blocks. 

I chose two different accent colors here, but you could also use the same one instead. It all depends on what is in your scrap bin. Yellow would have also worked with the floral that I chose to use. Having two shorter strips makes sewing the four patches go smoothly, but you could make them both out of the same color, which is what I chose to do for the smaller block. 

Start with flip and sew corners on the focus fabric. Draw a line from corner to corner along the diagonal of your small background square. Sew on the drawn line and flip and press.  

Do this on all four of your focus fabric squares. 

Then repeat for the adjacent corner. Go ahead and sew your strip sets together on one of your trips to the sewing machine, and press away from the background fabric.  

Sub-cut your strip sets to make pairs of twosies which you will sew together into four patches.  

Press the four patches, swirling the seam to help them lie flat.  Now for the fun part!

With two colors, place the accent color which matches the center square closest to the center square. this gives you the look of a larger square peeking out from behind the edges which is quite nice. I just now noticed that one of my corner squares is rotated the wrong way. I must have fixed that while I was sewing, because it looks fine in the finished block. 

Now sew your nine patch together and press away from the corner four patches which have the most bulk.  I like this one a lot, it will go on my short list for future projects!