Welcome to Mountaintop Quilting Studio

This is where you find me exploring a variety of creative adventures mostly about but not limited to quilting. I'm a firm believer that one increases their creativity by being open to and playing with a variety of cretative endeavors ... at least that my excuse for today. Enjoy your sourjourn through my studio playroom. May you find encouragement and inspiration, and on occassion, a little pin-prick that may be thought-provoking or spark your imagination. Thank you for stopping by.

Can you believe it ... we're ready for putting together the last units of the block. These block units are called Tri-Rec units and you will need 4 for each block using the main fabric and the background fabric.

This is one of my most favorite patch units to use in block design and used to be such a bear to piece. The only way I could make it come out right was to use a paper piecing foundation. And then I learned about the Tri-Recs Ruler Set . This ruler set makes your quilting life more efficient in use of time and fabric and your piecing will be more accurate because of the little notch in the corner of the Recs ruler. The pieces fit together like a fine fitting pair of gloves. Having said that, let's get on with the cutting instructions and then peicing these block units.

Remember to click on the image for a downloadable/printable copy of these instrucitons. Some of you may have looked at those cutting directions and your two triangle rulers and started waving your hand in the air hollering, "Kay, I need help!" So let's take a closer look at just how to use the Tri and the Recs ruler.

The Tri is pretty straight forward:

• You can leave your strip folded so you cut two triangle at a time.
• The numbers are the ruler are an indication of the size strips you should be cutting. These rulers are great for Tri-Recs units up a 6" finished patch unit.
• The edge of the strip will be lined up with the 4 1/2" line on the ruler.
• You will flip the ruler back and forth as you work your way cutting across the strip width. Sometimes the rotary cutter gremlins may get in there and fool around with your strip ... the cut edge from the previous cut may NOT line up with the edge of the ruler. Not to fret - just be sure the line on the ruler and the base of the strip are even and start cutting again trimming away that didn't seem to fit.

Cutting the Recs triangle is a little more detailed but just as easy once you know for sure what to watch for ... namely, that little notch up in the corner of the triangle. Well, let's face it, this is a situation when a picture is worth a thousand words:

And, of course, remember to flip the ruler back and forth as you cut across the strip width. Leave the strip folded so you get a right and a left triangle with each cut.

Take a look at the next picture. You'll see how the recs triangle point fits snug as a bug right into the corner of the Tri patch.

Last of all, trust me, I guarantee you over the course of piecing these blocks, you will piece at least one of these units backwards. It is so easy to get the recs triangles on upside down because it just makes visual sense when you layer the patches right-sides together. We've all done it so don't feel embarrassed. I lay my patch unit out on the table next to me so I don't get the recs patches flipped.

So, I think that pretty much covers everything you need to know for this step of making the blocks. Next up, assembling the blocks, then joining the blocks into rows, and then you're all ready for adding the borders. As always, please drop me a quick email ( kayoft@gmail.com or info@mountaintopquilting.com ) if you have any questions or something doesn't make sense.

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