Moda Blockheads: Block 18-Rocky Mountain Puzzle

Whew, time to play catch up with the blocks I have missed.  I am starting with Carrie Nelson's Block 18-it just looked like fun.  It also happened that our son who lives in Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains was here for a visit so it seemed fitting as well.  The little bear was given to me in celebration of his birth and normally sits on a shelf in my quilt room.  
You can find the link for this pattern on her blog by clicking below:
​ ​http://blog.modafabrics.com/2017/07/blockheads-block-18/

I started with fabric that had been starched and proceeded to cut out all the pieces for this block.  I like to have a little extra for trimming Half-square triangles so cut those pieces a little larger than Carrie's directions state.
E and F are cut to 2 1/2 inch squares.
​

To make unit #1 start with the A and B pieces and join with a quarter inch seam.

Continue adding the C and D pieces-working around the square.  
I pressed towards the piece that was just added rather than towards the B square; 
just like I do when making a Log Cabin block.

Unit #1 should measure 3 1/2 inches square when done.

Next I made the Half-square triangles-it is the year of the Half-square triangle for me it seems.
I started by drawing a diagonal line on the back of all of the E squares.

Placing an E and F square right sides together I sew 1/4 inch from each side of the drawn line.

These are cut apart on the drawn line and pressed towards the darker side.

Since these squares were cut a little large I need to trim them down to 2 inch squares.  
I do this by lining up the diagonal line on my ruler with the diagonal seam line,
​trimming two sides then rotating the unit and trimming the next two sides.

Using the Half-square triangles we just made,
join two sets of them together to make two Unit #2's.

The next step is to make the Unit #3's.
This time we need three Half-square-triangles and one G square for each unit.

I chain-pieced in groups of two and pressed the two outer seams towards the outside.  I pressed the middle seam the direction it wanted to lay better.

Two Unit # 3's are finished and here you can see how I have pressed them.

Now it is time to put all of the units we have made together.  
​Starting with Unit #1, add a Unit #2 to each side making sure
​the triangles are going in the correct direction.

Lay out the Unit # 3's on the top and bottom making sure they are facing the right direction.

Because of the way I pressed these units the seams nest nicely and I placed two pins to hold everything together where the seams met.

And there we have the finished block!

Now I just need to go back and do the two blocks I missed while we were vacationing-I think there is an alternate too that I would like to try so...
until next time,

Happy Quilting!!

For a PDF version of this tutorial click HERE.