Cinco de Mayo

A lot of talk of margaritas and Mexican food today. I can't handle a margarita (just ask my kids!), but I've always loved Mexican food. Raised in California and loved all things Mexican.

I was reminded of the block I designed for Quilt Magazine in 2007 which I called Olé. And I remembered the Benartex "What's in My Pantry" Collection which I featured here a few months ago. I was thinking CHILI PEPPERS and there are two fabrics in that collection with chili peppers on them.

What's in My Pantry?

Here are my steps to quickly cut and stitch these two blocks (which I made this morning in one hour's time). I used these two pepper fabrics as the center of my blocks. Aren't they yummy?

Chili pepper fabrics with black background

Chili pepper fabrics with yellow background

First I cut the parts (pattern follows at the end of this post):

Block parts for Olé

Then I began stitching:

Orange triangles at the top of the blocks

Green triangles at the top of the blocks

I decided to use a stripe to finish the sides. There really is a trick to cutting striped fabric so that the stripes all go in the same direction. Here is what you do:

Two squares with stripes oriented the same way; cut as shown

Stripes are horizontal in the yellow chili pepper block

I audition the stripes by folding and putting next to the block.

Stripes oriented horizontally are cut this way

And these corner squares go with the black pepper block:

Stripes are oriented vertically

The key is to cut two squares and put them side by side. Then cut in a "mountain" cut. You can't get the triangles to work if you cut both squares at the same angle.

I hope you have a wonderful day!