The 5 Minute Block

I stumbled across a video of the 5 minute block by Suzanne McNeill and thought I would give it a try.  It seemed pretty simple.  The video didn't give any measurement instructions so I did my own calculations.  Here my still shots or you can watch the video linked here.

 3 strips, 3 1/2 x 6 inches

 Fold one of the strips (that will make the triangle on the block) in half, wrong sides together.

 Sandwich the folded piece between the other two pieces, right sides together.

 I had to pin mine because the folded piece made it a little bulky.

 Sew 1/4 inch seam allowance through all thicknesses.

 Iron the piece open.

Open up the inset, pulling it across the two strips, aligning it up across the bottom.

 

 Press.

 There are two options on how the triangle can look, with straight lines or curved.

 I did a basting stitch across the bottom to hold all the layers in place while I assemble the block.

 Then comes the fun of deciding how to lay out your block.

 I decided to go with the curved look and simply pressed in a simple roll.

 

 I topstitched around the curved roll, pivoting at the point, to go down the other side.

 Then I played with it's placement.

 Ending up liking this the best.

My block turned out to be 12x18 (with seam allowance) and I figure if I did 24 blocks, this would make a nice little quilt.  24 strips cut 3 1/2 x 44 inches per color should make a 54 x 72 inch quilt (it takes 1 strip per color to do 1 block).  That's about 2 1/2 yards of fabric per color.  It took me about 45 minutes from cutting to block assembly. 

 

There was maneuvering needed to get the points matching and I'm wondering if I waited to do the curved roll after it is assembled if that would be easier (I'll have to try it out).  Also, I ironed the seam allowance open at the center of the triangles.  There is a lot of bulk there.  Not sure how quilting this would be, since you have lots of layers inside that little square.