Mountains, forests, water – those words sum up Western Washington. Summer is short and everyone rushes to take full advantage. Boaters take to the lakes and Puget Sound. If you’re in Seattle in summer, visit the Ballard Locks and watch a parade of boats of all kinds travel between Lake Washington and the Puget Sound. Visit the salmon ladder, too. It’s a Seattle thing.

I have always wanted to sail. So, when the mentors of the 2015 New Quilter Bloggers gave us a chance to design a summer theme block for the Fabri-Quilt New Block Blog Hop, sailboats came to mind and Regatta was born.

Our mentors worked with Fabri-Quilt to provide us fat-eighths of their Prairie Cloth Solid fabrics, in a palette dubbed “Watermelon Summer Color Palette”. I of course, gravitated toward the blues and green so prevalent here in Washington.

The square patch is a wonderful place to customize your block. You could feature a favorite print or motif. Or, you could do as I did and start playing with classic quilt blocks. A 4-inch finished block is all you need to add pizzaz to your block.

Regatta has negative space so the main triangle floats much like sail boats on the lake. When set together, the negative space bleeds together for a cool effect. You can have a regatta skimming across the water with summer skies:

Or, create orderly rows of boats sailing across the water:

And for another option, use an alternate grid with plain alternate blocks to scatter the boats across the water.

Wanna make a Regatta block of your own? It is a simple but effective block and I hope you enjoy it. Download the instructions here.

Who doesn’t love a tip?

1. Always pre-wash your fabrics. Pre-washing can help with shrinkage and bleeding. I know it’s a pain, but I’ve been grateful that I pre-washed on more than one occasion.
2. For accurate half-square triangles (HST), I like to use the “diagonal seams” method with oversized squares which are trimmed to size after piecing. This method creates two HST blocks.

To get started with the diagonal seam/trim method, cut two squares the finished size of your HST + 1-inch. For Regatta, the HST finishes at 4 inches and you need to cut two 5-inch squares (4-inch finished + 1 inch = 5 inches). Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the wrong side of the lighter fabric. 

Put your two squares right sides together. Sew 1/4-inch on both sides of the drawn line.

Cut along the drawn line to create two HST blocks. Press the each block open with the seam allowance toward the darker fabric. The block will be slightly oversized and needs to trimmed.

Grab your rotary ruler and align the 45 degree line along the seam. Position the ruler so you can trim the block to 4 1/2-inch x 4 1/2-inch. Trim two sides.

Rotate the block, align the ruler on the cut edges and diagonal seam. Trim the remaining two sides. Tada! One perfectly sized 4-inch finished HST.

Continue on the blog hop this week for over sixty summer inspired original block designs. Be sure to visit the hosts’ sites to enter fabric bundle giveaways. Personally, I can’t wait to see what everyone has created with these fabrics. Here’s the schedule:

Monday, August 31st – Hosted by Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl (my awesome hive leader!)

Tuesday, September 1st – Hosted by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

Wednesday, September 2nd – Hosted by Stephanie of Late Night Quilter

Thursday, September 3rd – Hosted by Terri Ann of Childlike Fascination

In case you’re wondering what is going to be done with these blocks, all the makers are mailing them so they can be made into quilts to be given away. Pretty cool. Thank you, Fabri-Quilts for the fabric and the challenge!