TIP #3: Ocean Waves Patches

The Ocean Waves block is a good example of how BlockFab can handle a block that is not in its library. The Patch feature has the answer.

There are a lot of ways to construct an Ocean Waves quilt block, but they all involve a large square (sometimes constructed as 4 quarter-square triangles) with 24 dark and 24 solid or light half square triangles. In my case, I want the center square to be 6" finished, making the half square triangles 2 1/8" on the short sides.

So, to calculate the dark fabric for a block, I use the Patch tab in BlockFab, choose Half Square Triangle from the library, and specify a finished size of 2 1/8" and a count of 24. I then email this information to myself, or take a snapshot of the screen. By checking the cutting assumptions screen, I see that I need one strip of fabric, and use 36" of my 40" -- not much waste there.


Now for the solid colored fabric. The same amount of fabric is needed for these 24 triangles as for the dark ones. hen, to calculate fabric for the central squares, I choose Square from the library, specify a 6" finished size, and give it a count of 1. But I can get more than 1 square from my 40" long strip. In fact, I can get 6 squares from a strip. (You can do the math yourself, or play around with the count and see how many you can get before the strip count goes to 2.) So I'll keep that in mind, and take it into account when I decide on how many blocks I want to make. Again I email the results or take a snapshot.

So, in all, I need 1/8 yard of dark fabric (or scraps) and 1/8 yard of light fabric per block, plus 1/4 yard light fabric per 6 blocks.

Of course, if someone would just add this block to the library, there would be no need to go through these extra steps! Maybe next update...