Accidental Quilt Block Tutorial- Updated

I realized I did not sew and show the block the way I originally intended when I wrote this tutorial!  So I updated it with some new pictures and text.

A couple of years ago I became fascinated with the Disappearing Nine Patch quilt block and decided to experiment with it.  I loved how you could take one block, sub-cut it, and sew it back up to make a different block.  So I took that concept and went a little farther resulting in this block OR this block (depending on how you sew sub-cut triangles together):

 

Here’s how I made it:

I started with a Charm Pack (pre-cut 5 1/2 inch squares) and made a nine patch block.  To end up with the green and red partial “frames” around the block, it’s important that you lay your colors out as pictured here.

I then cut this block in half vertically down the center, then horizontally across the center.

To find your centers line up your ruler with the 2 1/4 inch mark running along the left seam vertically, make your cut, then without moving the block, switch your ruler to horizontal with the 2 1/4 inch mark running along the horizontal seam (as pictured above) and make that cut.  You now have four squares.

Time to sub-cut those squares one more time.  Each square should be cut diagonally as follows to achieve the same result I got:

The bottom left square should be cut from the right lower corner up to the left top corner as pictured below.

The bottom right square should be cut diagonally from the left bottom corner up to the right top corner as pictured below.

The top left square should be cut diagonally from the left bottom corner to the right top corner as pictured below.

The right top square should be cut diagonally from the right bottom corner to the left top corner as pictured below.

You end up with a diamond-shaped cutting pattern as below.

Using the four center triangles, take one top and one bottom triangle put them right sides together and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the diagonal edge to form a square. Take the other two triangles and sew them together as well.  You now have two “accidental” blocks.

Depending on the block you desire, you can sew the triangles together in two different ways.

Block One is my favorite, as I do not know how you can achieve this look in an easier way:

Block Two can be constructed using just squares and triangles, but is also another result you can get:

The blocks measure about 6 1/2 inch square.  There will be a couple of dog ears you should trim off before sewing your blocks together.

I have taken images of these blocks and tried out the two following layouts as example quilt patterns that could result from the blocks.  The “cross” one is kind of wonky due to the images not fitting together really well, but I think you get the point.

Here is an example using Block One:

Here is an example using Block Two:

The four outer triangles can also be sewn together to make squares that look like this:

Examples of a couple of quilt layouts using only these blocks are below (again, these are just block images pasted together so not perfect):

I haven’t tried combining all four examples of blocks together, but I think this shows there are several options for making quilts from blocks cut from this technique.  A little more thought into the fabric chosen rather than what I just threw together might result in some really interesting quilts!

If anyone makes quilts from this technique I’d love to see them.