Lyra Quilt Along - Square in a Square Units

First of all, thank you to those who linked up—some gorgeous fabric pulls. I have heard that the kite shapes went together very well (yay) and so well, in fact, from one quilter, that she went ahead and finished the quilt top, figuring out the other steps on her own. I think she’s competing with Rose for the speediest sewist award, ha.

This week we are taking it easy and making five square-in-a-square units.

Here are my 16 star points (aka kite shapes) from last week:

Remember that you have the option of skipping these and simply inserting a 5 ½” (unfinished) square in its place.

I’ve made my current ones in the traditional way, starting with a square, and sewing triangles on all four sides. You might want to do these with stitch and flip corners, though that wastes fabric when you cut away the triangles formed by the diagonal seam. I did the SiaS units with yet another way I found online that I will link below the traditional way I’ve made those for this second quilt.

Square in a Square Units

1. Gather four Fabric C squares, one Fabric A square and 20 BG (background) HSTs. The HSTs are the 3 ⅝” squares cut on the diagonal to yield 20 HSTs. Mark the centre of each side of the 4” square with a gentle crease. Mark the centre of the long side of the HST with a crease. Tip: do a RST (right sides together) fold on the 4” square and a WST (wrong sides together) fold on the HST.

The raw edges aren’t aligned so you can see what I mean

This helps to get the alignment spot on! Thank you Michelle (in Scotland) for reminding me of this in last year’s QAL. Sew ¼” seam and press the seams to the HST. Repeat on the opposite side of the square with a second HST.

This photo of my Fabric C also shows those creases better than the black fabric. 

2. Repeat with two more HSTs.

The HSTs are cut slightly oversize so you can square these up perfectly. The little dog ears will get trimmed off when you square the block. Note as well that little dog ears stick out ¼” at either end of the third HST which is about to be sewn.

3. Square these to 5 ½”, carefully aligning your 2 ¾” marks at the 12 noon and 6 o'clock points of the inside square, and from 3 o’clock straight across to the 9 o’clock points. 

For my first Lyra quilt, I used the Crafty Quilter method linked below. This is why you see freezer paper and green fabric around it.

Yield: one SiaS! Make four using Fabric C/BG and one with Fabric A/BG.

My Fabric A/BG SiaS (don’t you love quilter lingo?!) with perfect ¼” seam allowances to preserve those points!

If you’re interested to try the method I used for my green SiaS units in my first Lyra quilt, click this link to Julie’s blog post. It’s slick and makes for perfectly preserved points! PPP😜 

And here is Wendy's of Pieceful Thoughts quilt:

So pretty! Head to her blog via that link to read about it. Wendy is another regular participant, and I am sending her a virtual hug for sewing along again and being in the Speedy González club with Rose.

Lastly, I have written the pattern for Lyra that has instructions for three versions of this quilt! I will be back later today (fingers crossed) or tomorrow with the release. (Blame Zora😈💖😬🐶)

Found the perfect backdrop at the historic Essex train station in front of an old train car.