More Old Italians

Obviously I was a little hasty in putting together that mini tutorial that I gave you a couple of posts back on how to sew the Old Italian block as I had a question from a reader as to what size to cut the strips that create the crisscross, so here's a few more details.

My initial instructions suggested starting with one 8" block, but you really start with two, one light and one dark.

Cut 2" wide strips through both diagonal lines of the blocks, measuring 1" on either side of the line that runs from corner to corner. Here's a better picture of how to lay your ruler to get the first cut - the 1" line runs through the block from point to point. For the second cut just flip the ruler around and cut 1" away from the centre line of the block, or 2" from the first cut.

Repeat this cutting sequence across the second diagonal.

After you have cut the strips through the diagonal of the block in both directions they look like this, so with only four cuts per block you have all of the pieces that you need to make two blocks.

Now, just switch up the corner strips; the centre square and triangles stay where they are - and voila, two blocks ready to assemble. If you press all seams to the dark side they will nest together nicely to finish off the blocks.

This one still needs to be trimmed, but it doesn't take long before you have a nice little pile of blocks that will finish at 6.5" square....M