How to Make a Mini Quilt Block: Jack in the Pulpit

Yesterday, we started talking about making a mini quilt block. A fun way to tackle your quilting wishlist, mini quilts are fast to make and much less expensive because they use less fabric! Several pattern designers have started designing mini versions of their popular quilt patterns for you, but if you don’t mind doing a little bit of basic math, you can turn your favorite patterns into mini quilts!

Start by checking out the first post in this series, which takes you through the basic math needed to calculate the mini version of a quilt. In this second half, we’ll talk about how to do the math for triangles in your mini quilts.

 This is a great block for us to practice what we did in the last post. Let’s do that with the center three pieces.

 1. Three Pieces:

• 4 ¾
• 2 ⅝
• 4 ¾ x 2 ⅝

2. Let’s make it ¼ the size, which means that…

3. The divisor is 2

4. Removing the seam allowances gets a little tricky with all those fractions! Remember that we’re taking off ½ from each… and ½ = 2/4 = 4/8 = 8/16

• 4 ¼
• 2 ⅛
• 4 ¼ x 2 ⅛

5. Divide BOTH sides by divisor (which we decided in step 3 is 2).

• 2 ⅛
• 1 1/16
• 1 ⅛ x 1 1/16

6. Add seam allowances to BOTH sides (add 1/2″)

• 2 ⅝
• 1 9/16
• 2 ⅝ x 1 9/16

Now it is time to tackle the triangles. If you’re caught up so far, triangles are no problem. When it comes to triangles in quilting, there is a magic number – ⅞”. Just like ½” is the seam allowance for squares and rectangles, ⅞” is the seam allowance on half-square triangles when you’re making them out of squares. So here are the steps for reducing the size of a half-square triangle:

Reducing the size of a half-square triangle

1. Start with the piece sizes.

2. Decide how small to make the block.

3. Come up with your divisor.

4. Remove seam allowances from BOTH sides (subtract 7/8″).

5. Divide BOTH sides by divisor.

6. Add seam allowances to BOTH sides (add 7/8″).

So, let’s reduce the size of our HST for the Jack in the Pulpit Block:

1. 3 ⅞” square

2. & 3. We already decided our divisor is 2.

4. Remove ⅞” = 3”

5. 3” divided by 2 = 1.5”

6. Add ⅞ to 1.5 = 2 ⅜”

So, we cut our squares to make the half-square triangles in our Jack in the Pulpit block at 2 ⅜”!

Here are our cutting instructions for the mini Jack in the Pulpit:

Background:

• Cut two 2 ⅜” Squares
• Cut eight 2 ⅜” half-square triangles

Black HSTs

• Cut two 2 ⅜” squares

Aqua

• Cut four 2 ⅝ x 1 9/16” rectangles

Pink

• Cut four 1 9/16 ” Squares

Cut one 2 ⅝ ” Square

About the author

Carolina Moore has been crafting her whole life. She started cutting and gluing as soon as her fingers could manage the scissors and paste, and started sewing when she was 6, and quilting when she was 12. She has made more quilts than her house can hold, but that doesn’t stop her!

When Carolina’s online you can find her at 30 Minute Crafts and Always Expect Moore. When she’s not working at the computer, she’s behind a sewing machine, wielding a glue gun, or chasing her two young boys. She loves picnics in the park, snuggles with her kiddos, and has never managed to find enough hours in the day…

In case you missed it, here’s part one of making mini quilt blocks.