Hey Everyone, welcome back to Stash Blasting Wednesday.

Last week I highlighted one of my favourite quilt blocks called the Card Trick block and how to make it. It is a block made with all triangles so a bit tricky if you are just learning how to quilt.

One of the comments on the post was that he saw it as rectangles and squares rather than half square triangles and quarter square triangles. I started looking at the block and saw the same thing – rectangles and squares – I had never looked at it like this prior to the concept being pointed out to me.

It is very interesting how our mind sees one thing one way while another’s mind sees it a totally different way.

So his comment got me to thinking and I thought why not give it a try with the rectangles and squares and see how it goes together.

Here goes with my method using squares and rectangles.

I’m just going to pull scraps out of the bin for this piece since I don’t have an actual pattern to work from and it is a bit of an experiment for me.

I decided to go with blue and yellow.

First though I drew a graphic of the block on graph paper to figure out where the pieces needed to go and calculate the size of the pieces. I even did some colouring with pencil crayons.

Crayon sketch

Pieces all cut and ready to begin.

Pieces cut and ready

Once again I laid out the pieces in the position they appear in the block so not to get anything turned around or mixed up.

Pieces laid out

I decided I wasn’t happy with the light yellow so changed it for a darker one.

This block is sewn together on point which means from corner to corner going in one direction. I have started sewing the centre section together first.

The black corner triangles sewn to the coloured rectangles and the centre for squares sewn into pairs.

Sewing middle section first

The square pairs sewn to the appropriate rectangle/triangle combo.

Two sections in the middle

Then the two sections sewn together to make the centre of the block.

Centre section complete

The small triangles also known as setting triangles are sewn to the rectangles first.

Setting triangles sewn to rectangles

Then the corner triangles are the last to go on.

Corner triangles added

Finally the side pieces are sewn to the centre piece to create a 9 ½″ square.

Block complete

This method is definitely quicker and easier than sewing all of those triangles together but I am not sure I like the final look as well. I shouldn’t have changed out the yellow as I don’t have enough contrast now between the two yellows and it is hard to see the card definition – you know what they say always go with your first choice especially in multiple choice exams.

Here are last week’s block and my test piece side by side.

Two card trick blocks

I created another block with the fabrics I used for the card trick block last week so I could compare the two. And this is what it looks like.

Same fabrics as last week

Here they are side by side. I should have been more careful with where I placed my centre squares – on which side of the rectangle. In today’s block (on the left) the cards are overlapping in a counter clockwise direction and in the last week’s block (on the right) in a clockwise direction. Paying attention to these types of details is a good thing if you want the blocks to look the same.

The same blocks with different construction methods

Pretty much the same result with the two construction methods but I do find that the first constructions method has just a bit more dimension and definition in the block with all the different seam lines.

Depending if you want quick and easy or slow and fiddly will determine which method you use or I use. The alternate construction method is definitely better for a beginner quilter.

Happy Quilting!