Hey Everyone, welcome back to Stash Blasting Wednesday.

Another week, another road block. This one is a crossroads block – not sure why it is called this but then again most of the blocks are called names that one wonders why it is named what it is. I am sure with a little bit of research we could find the origin and story behind each block name.

I have mixed it up a bit this week and am making an eight inch block rather than the usual 6 inch block.  I guess I was getting tired of the little pieces and my stash isn’t getting used up very fast not that it will with 8 inch blocks either.

This block requires 4 fabrics. The colours I have chose make a triadic colour scheme and because a triadic scheme is only 3 colours one of the colours is used twice with a light and medium value of it. The light value could be substituted with white or black. The light turquoise appears white in the photos but it is turquoise.

Triadic Scheme fabric selection.

To make one eight inch block cut:

Note: All cutting instructions include ¼″ seam allowance.

Enough pieces cut for one block.

Red Violet fabric – 4 – 2 ½″ squares

Yellow Orange fabric – 4 – 2 ½″ squares

Medium Turquoise – 4 – 2 ½″ squares and 2 – 3 ¼″ squares

Light Turquoise – 2 – 3 ¼″ squares

Making the Block

Note: All seams are a ¼″ unless otherwise stated.

1. Make 4 half square triangles from the medium and light turquoise 3 ¼″ squares.

Need help with half square triangles? Check out my block post on how to make half square triangles.

Press the seams towards the medium turquoise fabric.  Square off each HST to 2 ½″.  Check out the cool squaring up ruler that makes squaring up HSTs as easy as 1 -2 -3.

Make 4 half square triangles.

2. Sew with RS together a red violet 2 ½″ square to an HST. See photo below for placement of HST. Make 4 units. Press the seam towards the red violet square.

Sew a red violet square to a half square triangle.

3. Sew with right sides (RS) together two of the units made in step 2. Take care to ensure the HST is properly placed. Press the seam in either direction. Make 2 total. Unit will measure 4 ½″ square.  Check your size and square off if it is needed.

Not sure how to square off a block? Check out my blog post on how to square up a block.

Sew pairs together as per layout in photo.

Above units sewn into a 4 ½″ square.

4. Sew with RS together a medium turquoise and yellow orange 2 ½″ square.  Make 4 pairs total.  Press the seam in either direction.

Sew medium turquoise and yellow orange squares together.

5. Sew with RS together 2 of the units made in step 4. Press the seam in either direction. Make 2 total. Unit will measure 4 ½″ square. Square off if needed.

Units made in step 4.

Four patch unit measuring 4 ½″ square.

6. Sew with RS together a unit from step 3 to a unit from step 5. See layout of units below. Press the seam towards the turquoise & yellow orange unit. Make 2 total.

Layout rows as per photo and sew units together in each row.

Units in each row sewn together.

7.  Sew with RS together the 2 units made in step 6. Press the seam in either direction. Block will measure 8 ½″ square. Square off if needed. I recommend pinning these units together before sewing as there are many seams to match up. My preferred pin to use is the forked pin – check them out here in my blog post all about pinning.

Rows pinned together at seams with forked pins.

8 ½″ Arkansas Crossroads block.

I made 4 of these blocks and would recommend sewing the medium turquoise and yellow orange fabrics together as a strip set to speed up the process. As well, I would recommend making the half square triangles with the grid method rather than single squares at a time.

I am very happy with my blocks and the triadic colour scheme I chose. A couple of the layouts this block creates are below. I really like how the lightest fabric forms a square in the background of layout #1 and an X in layout #2 – these 2 layouts of course are the mirror of each other.

Layout #1

Layout #2

Layout #3

What other triadic colour schemes could you use?

Happy Quilting!