Quilt Block: Hope of Hartford Quilt Block Tutorial

The Hope of Hartford quilt block is a lovely block that looks nice when it is done with three different fabrics, but of course you can use more if you wish. We have used a light, medium and dark fabric.

What You Need for a 10″x 10″ finished block (10½” unfinished):

• Light fabric
  •  1 piece  5 ¼” square.
  • 4 strips  2½” by 4½”
• Medium fabric
  • 1 piece  5 ¼” square.
  • 1 piece 2½” square.
• Dark fabric
  • 2 pieces 4 7/8″

Method:

• Slice the dark square on the diagonal from corner to corner.
• Do this with both the  4 7/8″ pieces.

• You now have 4 triangles.

• Slice the light and the medium squares diagonal from corner to corner.

• Now slice from corner to corner, diagonally, on the other side.

• You now have 4 triangles in both the medium and the light colours.

• Lay the pieces out on the mat as shown in the picture.

• We are going to sew the small triangles together first.
• Take one light triangle and one medium triangle and place them one on top of the other with right sides facing.
• Sew them together with a ¼” seam.

• Press the seam towards the darker fabric.
• Do this for all four sets of small triangles.
• Place them back into their position in the block.

• Take the large triangle and place it, right  sides together on top of the two triangles you have just sewn together.
• Sew the two pieces together with a ¼” seam.

• Press the seam to the dark side.

• Do this to create all four triangle sets.

• Take one of the 2½” by 4½” strips and place it right sides together over the square you have just created.
• Sew along the edges with a ¼” seam.

• Press the seam towards the rectangle side.

• Add the strips as shown to each of the remaining squares.

• Take the 2½” square of fabric and fold it in half.
• Finger press a crease.
• Take a Frixion pen or other fabric pen and draw a line at the half way point.

• Now its time to attach the rectangles to the middle square.
• Place the square in the corner of one of the triangles. Right sides together.
• Backstitch at the start.
• Sew along the edge until you reach the pen line. Backstitch.

• Press the seam towards the square.
• Take the next rectangle piece and line it up with the rectangle that has the square attached. Right sides together.
• Sew the two pieces together with a ¼” seam.
• Press the seam towards the square.

• Take the next rectangle piece and place it right sides together over the piece you have just sewn.
• Sew together with a ¼” seam.
• Press the seam towards the square.

• Now we come to adding the last rectangle and this one is a little different.
• Remember  how we only sewed half the square to the first block, well that was because now we need to be able to attach the last block.
• Lift the loose end of the square and flatten it out.
• Place the two edges, right sides together, and pin.
• Take your time to make sure the edges are flat.
• Sew together with a ¼” seam.

• We are now going to sew the last seam.
• Fold the bottom rectangle up.

• Line up the edges.
• We are going to start stitching from where we left off at the beginning.
• So line your needle up with the backstitching at the middle of the square.
• Backstitch – we do this because this seam won’t be sewn onto any other seam and we don’t want it to unravel.
• Sew from the centre of the square out to the edge.

And there you  have it. This is a lovely block that is well worth making and once you have tried it you will find it really easy to do.

•  You can put this block together using sashing between the blocks.

• Or you can simply sew the blocks together.

Measurments for a 12″ Unfinished Block

To make the Hope of Hartford quilt block as  an 12″ finished block (12.5″ unfinished) use the following measurements:

• Light fabric
  •  1 piece  6″ square.
  • 4 strips   5 ¼” by 2 7/8″
• Medium fabric
  • 1 piece  6″ square.
  • 1 piece 2 7/8″ square.
• Dark fabric
  • 2 pieces 5 5/8″