Hot and Cold {May NURTURE circle block}

Hello Good Stitchers! May is my month to create the next block for the NURTURE circle and I completely forgot! Thanks to a couple of you for reminding me!  This month's block is an easy one. Since I forgot and had to make these in a hurry this morning I can tell you from personal experience, it takes less than half an hour to make the whole set.

(edited to add: See the finished quilt here!)

Pic from Tamarack Shack

This month we are making the Four Patch Charm Quilt from Tamarack Shack. You can check out another tutorial for the same block here at Sew Preeti Quilts with a lot of different layout options! There will be a couple of small modifications to the size of blocks, so I am going to adjust the tutorial below.

To start you will need (2) 10.5" squares in cool colors (basically blue and green and their variations) and (8) 5.5" squares in warm colors (red/yellow/orange). Try to choose bright rather than subdued shades and keep it unisex: no purple or pink.

Sew the warm color squares into (2) 4 patches. Whichever fabrics share a seam will end up next to each other in the final block. The fabrics on opposite corners will not be in the same block so you don't need to worry about them playing well together. The final blocks will have bias edges so if you ever use starch now would be a good time. (You can make your own by mixing a little cornstarch in water.)

Place each of the four patches right sides together with one of the cool squares and sew around all four edges. I find I get better results by sewing one edge at a time rather than sewing in a square. Once you have sewn all the way around use a long ruler to cut the blocks corner to corner on both diagonals, making 4 HSTs.

Press your final blocks toward the cool fabric and, yes, use starch again if you have it.  The blocks should finish a right about 7" but don't stress if yours aren't perfect. Once I get them all I will probably trim them down a bit for consistency.

(edited to add: See the finished quilt here!)

You should finish with (8) hot/cold HSTs. With so few blocks it's hard to see the potential design, but you can get the idea. As always, feel free to comment or email me with questions. Thanks ladies!