Charm Pack Hourglass Quilt Pattern

I saw a very cute quilt a while ago made from the traditional hourglass pattern.  Since I have 4 baby quilts to make for my new 4 grandbabies, (yup, all 4 of my daughter-in-laws were expecting within 4 months of each other - how fun!) I decided one of them would be an hourglass quilt.  I was going on a friends quilt retreat and as I was going to pull some fabrics for the quilt from my stash, I noticed a charm pack I had in a tote.  It was perfect!

 1.  I chose a white background and cut that into 5" squares to go with the charm pack.  To make the blocks, with a thin pencil or fabric marker, draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the background square.  Place a charm pack square right sides together to a background square.   Sew 1/4" on each side of the line.  Cut apart on line.  Press to the dark.  You now have 2 half-square triangles.

 2.  Cut the half-square triangles in half diagonally so you have quarter-square triangles with a colored & background piece on each side.

3.  Now take the matching sides of the triangles from the other squares, flip and sew them back together butting the seams in the middle to make 2 squares that look like an hourglass.  Repeat to make as many blocks as you need.

4.  Alternating the direction of the hourglass, sew squares together in a row and then sew your rows together.

That's all there is to it! You can add a border if you want.  I added a narrow background border thinking I was going to use my matching jelly roll as the outside border, but I didn't like it.  If I were to do it again, I would add a 2-1/2" to 3-1/2" finished background border.

So easy and you can make any size you want!  Just choose your quilt size and grab a calculator.  Take off the measurements of the borders and divide by 3.75" (the finished block size).  For example, if you want  a 45" x 60" finished quilt with 3" finished borders:

                      45" - 6" (3" borders on both sides) = 39" and 60" - 6"(borders) = 54"

                      39" divided by 3.75" = 10.4 so round up to 11 blocks in a row

                      54" divided by 3.75" = 14.4 so round up to 15 blocks in a row (you can round down if you want - because 3.75" doesn't go into 39" or 54" evenly, your quilt will be a little bigger or smaller)

11 blocks x 15 blocks = 165 blocks needed.   You need 1 charm piece and 1 background piece for 2 hourglass blocks.  165 divided by 2 blocks per charm piece = 82.5 so you need 83 charm pieces.  Check your charm pack for how many pieces are in it.  I've seen them anywhere from 30-42 pieces per pack.  And of course, if you don't have a charm pack, simply use 5" squares from your scraps or stash.

One more option - you can make the block any size you want.  Simply add 1-1/4" to the finished size block you want.  Cut the squares that size and sew using the same steps.  It is a darling scrap quilt!  Now time to cut my minky for the back and send it off to the quilter.