dreaming easy: checkered arrow block sans pretrimming

pre-trimmed units

finished block still needs trimming

when i first made this block from 4 charm squares, i trimmed the two square units down to 4.5", so they matched the size of the hst units, prior to assembling the block (first photo). i call this pre-trimming. however, i found i still needed to trim up the final block because the pinked edges of the charm squares left the block uneven. also, i wasn't trimming my hst units before joining the block together, which contributed to it's slight mismatching. rather than pre-trimming the square units and the hst units to perfect 4.5" squares, i took a shot at assembling the block without any pre-trimming.


i made sure the excess fabric was going to be on the outside edge of the two sections and joined them by lining up the center seams. (if you don't, no big deal. just see the end of the post for instructions.)

my assembled block looked like this:

obviously it needs a trim, but i saved time by doing it all at once.

i don't have an 8.5" sq ruler, so i used the closest size i have, my 9.5" sq. i l located the middle point of the 8.5" sq (the intersection of the 4.25" lines) to line up with my center seam intersection on the block. then i made sure all the edges fell within the 8.5" guidelines. the pencil is lined up with vertical line and the tip of my rotary cutter is lined up with the horizontal line so you can see where they are in the photo.

after eyeballing that everything is within the proper lines and as straight as i can get it, i trimmed off the top and right sides of the block. thank you rotating cutting mat for making this easy.

all that's left is to rotate the block so you can trim the other two edges. once it's flipped, you can easily line up the 8.5" lines on the ruler with the straight edges you just created.

there you have it - a perfectly trimmed block and no pre-trimming required.

excess seam allowance before pressing

if you find yourself in the position of having excess seam allowance after the final seam is sewn, just give it a trim to 1/4" before you press the last seam open.

just trim, then press