Twisted Squares

A friend of mine sent me a picture of a quilt and asked me how to make the block.  I had never seen the block before (to my knowledge) and had no clue.  So what did I do?  I called my mom (who knows everything about sewing and quilting - hi mom!  love you💗).  She found the name of the block so I did some research and found a pin on Pinterest  (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/344032859043155986/).  But alas, it was not exactly what my friend wanted.  So, I had to play around and get creative.  The above link is for a disappearing four patch with a twist.  My friend just wanted the "twist".  So this post is all about how to make The Twist (I have no idea what the real name would be called LOL).  **update - I found the official name of the block - its called The Old Italian Block**

Here are two samples of the disappearing four patch with a twist and how you can vary it just by turning the center square.

Disappearing Four Patch

Disappearing Four Patch variation

If you want to know how to make one of those blocks, follow the link above.  The tutorial here will be about how to make a similar block.  I couldn't find anything online about it, so I thought I would make my own.  Ready?  Here goes.

I started with two 7" squares from coordinating fabrics.  I cut these down from some 10" squares that my mom gave me.  

The first thing you want to do is mark 1.25" in on each corner.

 Make sure you mark both the top and the side as in the pic below.  Do this on all four corners.  I use a Pilot Frixion pen because the marks disappear when you iron.  Perfect!!

the arrows are pointing out the marks on all four corners.

Once you have the corners marked, take a ruler and line up the top right hand mark with the bottom right hand mark - diagonally.  Like this

Go ahead and cut along your ruler.  Without moving your fabric, lift the ruler and rotate your entire mat.  (I have a rotating cutting mat and it makes it really easy to do this.  If you don't have a rotating cutting mat, just carefully swivel your mat or use a surface that you can walk around all four sides.)  Line up your ruler with the top right hand mark and the bottom right hand mark and cut again.  Do this a total of four times.  Your fabric should now look like this:

Repeat these steps with the second fabric.  If you know you are going to make several blocks, go ahead and stack 3-4 fabric blocks and cut them all at once.  Super time saver!!

Next, you are going to swap the triangles and the center square.  It should look something like this:

Then you will sew the block together by strips, like this

After you do each strip, iron the seems for each strip in the same direction, alternating the direction for each strip.  For example, the top strip you would iron the seems to the left, the middle strip iron the seems to the right and the bottom strip iron the seems to the left.  That way when you pin and sew them together, you won't get bulky seems.    

Then sew the strips together to make the complete block.  I always pin at the seems to be sure to get them lined up as I sew

Once all the strips are sewn together and ironed well, it's time to square up your block.  I cut mine to a finished size of 5 1/2"

And there you have it - the "twist" to the block.  Once I got started, I may have gotten a little carried away.  Here are the others I made from this 10" layer cake 

and here are two I made from a 5" charm pack - aren't they adorable?? 

 I may turn these into mug rugs. Do you want a tutorial on that?  let me know and I'll put one together. 

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will answer

 them to the best of my ability.  Happy crafting!!