November Block Drive: Falling Leaves

Welcome to Fall! Finally!  Summer seems to last forever in Texas, but the days are finally turning cool. In honor of the arrival of fall this month's block drive for Covered in Love will be a falling leaves block.

(Edited to Add: View some finished quilts here)

First off, I didn't invent this block, I've seen it lots of places. I just customized the measurements for our purposes.  To make this block you will need some scraps in fall colors (brown, red/maroon, orange, yellow) and scraps for the background in khaki/taupe/off white shades.

Cut:

(3) 4.5" colored squares

(2) 5" colored squares

(3) 5" background squares

(1) 4.5" background square

(1) 1"x7" brown strip

On the back side of the (3) 5" background squares mark a diagonal line corner to corner and slice one of the squares along that line into 2 triangles.  Sew the brown strip in-between the two triangles to reassemble the square as a "stem" unit.  Pair the other (2) 5" background squares with the 5" colored squares and sew on either side of the marked line, then cut to yield 2 HSTs (tutorial #1 here).

Press and trim the (4) HSTs and the "stem" unit to 4.5" square and lay out the block as shown.  If you are making more than one block at once you can switch around your HSTs to have more variety within each block. Also, I used the same fabric for the background throughout this block, but feel free to keep it scrappy!

Sew together your 9 small blocks into a 12.5" finished block and you're done! Comment or send me an email for my mailing address if you want to pitch in.  Make 1 block or 10, all donations are welcome!

Covered in Love makes quilts of comfort to be given to the families of patients who pass away in the hospital where I work.  These quilts not only bring warmth to a hospital room, but are taken home by the families as transitional items.

Check out our August block drive quilt by clicking on the picture above.

Linking to Oh Scrap! and Design Wall Monday.