Wonky Four Patches. Aka Crazy Four Patches.. The word wonky is growing on me. It used to grate on me slightly… but I now appreciate what it’s trying to convey. The word crazy is simultaneously rather vague and judgy. Am I the only one who even thinks about such things? I’m being rather vague and judgy! Who really cares, right? Let’s just get down to it!
Making our simply framed, slightly askance four patches is actually quite simple.
(Note: All seams are 1/4 inch)
(Another Note: If you’d like a rather cleverer way to put together these wonky four patches, check out this helpful tutorial by Allie over at the blog Strandz. She cuts the square once, sews halves together, then cuts again, whereas I make both cuts in the beginning.)
What You’ll Need:
- Four squares of four different fabric. I used 6” squares of four kona solids.
- Eight strips of ~6” fabric, mine were 1.5” wide
- Eight strips of ~8” fabric, mine were 1.5” wide
- Fork pin, optional
- Straight pins
- Cutting mat
- Ruler
- Rotary cutter
- Your machine
- Iron
1. Start off with four squares of fabric, cut to the same size. In my case, I went for 6” squares of kona solids.
2. Stack them so that the are as perfectly aligned as possible, lay your ruler slightly askance down the middle of the stack and make a cut through the four layers of fabric.
In this case I only rotated my ruler slightly, but you can opt for a much more dramatic slope if it pleases you.
3. Rotate the entire stack 90 degrees, being careful not to shift the fabric. Make another cut down the middle.
Now you have four sets of four wonky quadrangles.
4. This next step ensures you get one of each fabric choice in each of your four blocks. There are different ways to do this, but this is how I like to do it.
Think about the four patches as four quadrants, 1, 2, 3 and 4:
Then, as you’re laying out each fabric, just make sure that, going in the same direction (top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right), you place each color in each of the quadrants.
So starting with the purple fabric, it goes in spot 1, then 2, then 3 then 4. Now the teal. It starts in spot 2 in the first block (top left), so it goes 2, 3, 4, 1. The brown goes 3, 4, 1, 2, and the olive goes 4, 1, 2, 3.
Just be sure you don’t rotate or flip the fabric as you’re going along.
If it sounds complicated, it’s not! Just try it out and you’ll see.
5. Working with each set individually, sew the top two pieces to one another, and the bottom two pieces. Align the raw edges. They’ll look a little funny since they’re at angles.
When you’re done, they should look like this:
6. Press the seams nice and flat, one to each side so that they will nest nicely when butted up against each other.
7. Slide the two sewn halves together, right sides together, making sure the seams nest and align nicely where they meet.
You can use a fork pin to secure them:
8. Sew the two pieces together, making sure the raw edges align.
Press the seam open. The back should look like this:
9. Now we will add the frame, or sashing.
Cut strips of fabric slightly longer than the edge of the square, which should be about 5.5” (if you started with 6” blocks). Don’t worry if they’re not perfectly straight. Aligning one edge of the strip (I used 1.5” strips) to the edge of the block, attach strips to the top and bottom.
Notice that I followed the edge of the strip for my line of stitches, rather than the edge of the four-patch. This evens out some of the wonkiness of the four patch edges.
10. Using a ruler, cut off the excess length of the strips on either side of the block. Press the seams to towards the strips.
11. Add the remaining two strips, which should be at least 8” long for this size block
Your wonky four patch with frame block is now finished! Repeat with the remaining three sets of four-patches you cut.
It’s my turn to send out fabric and instructions for my online quilting bee. My plan is to ask the members of Sew Bee It to sew sets of these blocks, using several different solid colors I have picked out. I’ll then sash them with a darker grey solid fabric… hoping for a more masculine, modern-looking quilt at the end of April!
