Big block quilts can be quick, easy and fun to stitch together, but how do you properly trim the individual blocks if the tools you have on hand are not large enough?
It's not difficult at all! Using a 6" square ruler, this large pinwheel block will be trimmed into a 10" square. Just another great quilting hack to add to your quilting knowledge!
FREE Guide: Genius Hacks Every Quilter Should Know
Download this FREE PDF guide to discover insider quilting tricks for making every project easy & efficient!
How to trim squares for big block quilts
Step 1:
Determine the desired "trimmed" block size and divide that number in half.
In our example below, the pinwheel will be trimmed into a 10" block. Therefore, 10" divided in half equals 5". (Remember to add seam allowance to your trimmed block size)
Step 2:
Place the 5" ruler marking directly on the horizontal and vertical center seams, and align the 45 degree line of the ruler on top of the 45 degree seam of the block.
If you do not have center or diagonal seams lines, fold your block to determine the center and press in centered horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. Use these as your guide.
Step 3:
Once the horizontal and diagonal lines are in position, hold the ruler in place. Without shifting, trim away as much as the ruler will allow.
Step 4:
Rotate the block one time. Re-position the ruler, aligning the center seams and the 45 degree seam exactly as in the previous step. Continue to trim the right side of the block and across the top as far as the ruler will allow.
You should rotate and trim the block total of four times.
There you have it — a 10" block trimmed with a 6" ruler.
Do you have another strategy for trimming large blocks? Leave a comment sharing your method for trimming large quilt blocks. We'd love to know!
Anxious to get started on a big block quilt of your own?
Photo via laugh yourself into Stitches* Craftsy pattern store
The "Easy as Pie" quilt is truly as easy as pie! This fat-quarter friendly project will use up almost an entire fat quarter with very little waste, meaning you really get your money's worth. The pattern comes with two different versions — one to be made with fat quarters and one to made with flannel yardage.
FREE Guide: Genius Hacks Every Quilter Should Know
Download this FREE PDF guide to discover insider quilting tricks for making every project easy & efficient!
Related Posts
Mug Rug of the Month: Download This Month’s FREE Pattern
Pressing Issues! How to Press Quilt Seams
4 Essential Skills for Patchwork Quilting
15 Tips and Tricks for Quick and Easy Quilting
5 Steps to Improving Your Piecing Accuracy
Make This Stash-Busting Block in 3 Steps: Disappearing Four-Patch Tutorial
This is a great hint. However, you should have said to put your ruler on the 5-1/4″ mark for a block that will finish 10″. Otherwise, you end up cutting off your seam allowances.
Thank you Janet
My 10″ block example represents an ‘unfinished’ block size. It is easier to photograph in whole inch increments. You are correct in your comment, if one wants a 10″ finished block, they would use the
5-1/4 mark on the center seam. Thank you for clarifying, I appreciate it! 🙂 ~karen
What a ridiculously simple idea and it never even occurred to me.
I have some 19 and 1/2 inch blocks to square up and this will
make it quite simple. Thank you.
What a great tip! I never thought of doing it this way, but I will remember this!! Thanks.
You should have said something at end of your presentation about seam allowance because alot of people don’t read comments. I aleays do, you pick up great tips from their comments. Thank you.
Great tip. There’s also a wonderful 20″ square ruler out there. Love mine for this, squaring up quilts for binding, and lots of other uses!
Thanks Marcy! I should probably invest in a 20″ square ruler! 🙂 Especially when it comes to squaring up for the binding!
Thanks for your comment.
~karen
Ok, it must be me, but i’m really confused by the pictures of your ruler on the square. Your origin may be on “center” of the fabric, but the lines of the ruler are way off the seams (both vertical and horizontal) once you get away from the origin. Is all you care about that the 45 degree line lies on the 45 degree seam?
Additionally, I’ve read in several of the blogs here about where the ruler should lay when cutting fabric and where the ruler lines should lay. (for example, when cutting a 2″ strip from a bulk piece of fabric, the ruler lays on the 2″ piece, and the entire 2″ ruler mark should lay on the fabric of that 2″ piece to be cut.) However trimming blocks is a different example and I thought this blog would answer my question but I think it’s too difficult to see on the photos. Can you tell me the answer to this question. I have a block i need to trim down to size. The perimeter of the finished size has a stitch the whole way around it. I need to make a half inch seam allowance from that stitch. When I lay my ruler on the block and attempt to line up the 1/2″ mark on the ruler to the seam, how exactly should that fat ruler mark lay in regards to that seam (I’m right-handed). Should the right edge of the mark (i.e. the inside edge of the mark) lay on the right edge of the seam? Should the right edge of the mark lay on the center of the seam, or the left edge of the seam? It may seem like a silly question, but from everything I’ve learned about quilting, even the width of a single thread is important when it comes to sewing things together.
Thank you for your time!
Julie
Hi Julie,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts…
The intent of my post is to show how to square up a large block using a ruler smaller than the desired block size.
In your comment, you say…
“Your origin may be on “center” of the fabric, but the lines of the ruler are way off the seams (both vertical and horizontal)”
If you are referring to my photo…looking very carefully at the picture, my horizontal and vertical lines may not be ‘exactly’ lined up on the corresponding seam lines. They may be an 1/8″ off. My block may not be exactly perfect. 🙂 But…the 45 degree line is key as well as maintaining the horizontal and vertical lines as close to perfect as possible.
Without seeing pictures of your block, it’s hard for me to fully grasp your situation. With that said, and if i am understanding correctly, i would place the line of the ruler on the seam (or do you mean the stitched) line. Sounds like you may have 4 areas on your block (with the addition of your stitched line) that will help you square up your block. The vertical seam line, the horizontal seam line, the diagonal seam line and your stitched line that encompasses your block.
If you’d like more clarification, you are welcome to email me and send a photo.
chezstitches@gmail.com
Here’s my post on proper rotary cutting. It is really important to lay the ruler line on the fabric! 🙂
http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/02/how-to-cut-fabric-for-quilting/
Thanks Julie!
some thing new learned.