Alternate Block

Since the scrappy star blocks looked too busy just stitched together, and since I wanted to make the quilt larger, I needed to decided on an alternate block.  I still had lots of 4patch blocks made with writing on the "light" squares.  I decided to make an "economy patch" block, using the 4patch as the centre square.  I used the "Companion Angle" ruler to cut triangle pieces from strips.  It works quite well, but you do need to be aware of the bias edges while pressing.  First I looked in my 2 inch strip bin to check for leftovers with black backgrounds, and cut triangles in sets of four.  I also had to check through my stash for smaller saved pieces of black with a small coloured print.  The blocks needed to be larger, so I figured out that I could cut triangles from 2 1/2 inch strips to make another round.  I decided to use lighter shades of greens to help calm the quilt top and to add some contrast.