Bee Blessed February 2015

I've got a nice block for you this month.  I'm calling it the Arrowhead block though you may have seen it by various other names.  I hope you like it as much as I do.  I know I am really looking forward to seeing lots of these side by side creating lots more secondary white arrowheads too!  So, on with the tutorial (with apols for the night time photos).

Arrowhead Block

For this block you will need solid white fabric for the background and four different bright prints for the arrowheads.


From solid white background:

Cut 4:  4.5" squares
Cut 4:  3.5" squares

From each of your four print fabrics:

Cut 1:  4.5" square
Cut 1:  3.5" square


Use scant 0.25" seams throughout.


1.  First, leave all of your 3.5" squares aside for now.

2.  To make the HST units: take all four white 4.5" squares and draw a diagonal line on the back of the fabric.  Pair each white 4.5" square with one of the four 4.5" print squares right sides together as shown above.

3.  Stitch a seam 0.25" on each side of the diagonal pencil line (bit hard to see in the pic, sorry).  Once both seams are sewn use your rotary cutter to cut along the pencil line and separate your HSTs.

4.  Press the seams of the HSTs towards the print fabric and then trim the HSTs to 3.5" square, taking care to line up the diagonal seam with the diagonal line on your ruler.

5.  You now have 8 HST units ready for your block.

6.  Lay out your block as shown above ready for piecing together.  We will begin piecing by stitching each of the four quadrants that make up each arrowhead first of all.

7.  Sew the four units of each arrowhead together by stitching first the top pair of units together and then the bottom pair.  When you have the pairs stitched, press the seam towards the HST unit.  You can see in the photo above that this will allow you to nest the alternating seams when you come to sew the top and bottom of the pairs together.  Repeat this for all four of the arrowhead quarters.

8.  Now flip the bottom pair of arrowhead unit up to lie right sides together on the top pair.  Nest your seams together and pin to hold.  Stitch the two pairs together.  Repeat for the remaining arrowhead units.

9.  To eliminate some of the bulk, press these seams open as shown above.

10.  Now pair up your arrowhead units right sides together, pin and stitch.

11.  This time press the seams on the top and bottom half of your block in opposite directions.  Again this will help to nest them in the next step.

12.  Pin and stitch the top and bottom halves of the block together, pressing your final seam open when finished.

13.  Trim your block to 12.5" square if necessary and you're done!

That wasn't too hard, was it?

I hope you will consider making one or two blocks for us this month.  Thank you if you do.  We are always so appreciative of the blocks you so generously send us and we keep beavering away to turn them all into completed quilts to share with folks who need a touch of kindness and thoughtfulness at difficult times.  It's not always a speedy process but we do get them all stitched up eventually!