Since I seem to be the first person to do the Barrister’s Block, and since we have some new quilters, I thought I’d share some tips:
Note: for these tips, I’m going to refer to the color sections of the block as ‘paws’ and ‘claws’. That’s just what I thought they looked like.
TIP #1. Don’t bother bisecting the squares. The directions tell you to cut squares, then bisect them to get two triangles. This is dumb, because then you would be sewing along a bias edge, which is likely to warp out of shape, giving you a wonky block. Instead match up your prints with your background squares, then draw a diagonal line on the back of your lighter pieces. Sew 1/4" away from the line on each side, then cut them apart. This is called the Two At a Time Method.
This works for both your big ‘paws’ and your small ‘claws’ HST’s. It also works even if you’re going for an ultra-scrappy look with every single ‘claw’ a different color, because you still would have needed to cut all 24 squares to start with, then after bisecting you would have a random triangle of each color leftover. This way you get two HST’s, that are neatly sewn each time, even if you chose to only use one of each color set.
I’m breaking Tip 2 down into an A and B, depending on the size of the block you’re making…
TIP #2 A - 12" BLOCK. Cut your small ‘claw’ squares at 2 1/2", rather than 2 3/8". First, 2 3/8" is a stupid, fiddly size to cut, and in doing so you’ll end up with leftover strips that are 2 3/8", which aren’t good for much. HOWEVER 2 1/2" strips are highly useful in quilting. You can use them as Jelly Roll strips or cut them further down into Mini Charm Squares.
Cutting them just 1/8" bigger means that when you are done, you will have room to trim down your HST’s to the right size. (The pattern doesn’t say, but for the 12" block, you’ll trim them down to 2".) If you do the 2 3/8", you will have no margin for error, and if you’ve not sewn them at exactly 1/4" seam, your HST’s might be too small. I know people don’t love trimming down pieces. (Especially in this case 28 HSTs for a single block!) However, if you do, your whole block will come together more easily when you do the rest of the assembly, and you’re far more likely to end up with the right finished size block.
TIP #2 B - 10" BLOCK Just as above, I would advise you to cut your small ‘claw’ squares at 2 1/2", rather than 2 1/8". Again, 2 1/8" is a fiddly size to cut, and you’ll end up with leftover strips that aren’t good for much. 2 1/2" strips are highly useful in quilting. You can use them as Jelly Roll strips or cut them further down into Mini Charm Squares. Don’t think of it as ‘wasting’ 1/4" strip of fabric. Look at as preemptively creating scraps you are more likely to use than you would have otherwise.
Cutting them bigger, also means that when you are done, you will have room to trim down your HST’s to the right size. (The pattern doesn’t say it, but for the 10" block, you’ll trim them down to 1 3/4".) If you do the 2 1/8", you will have no margin for error, and if you’ve not sewn them at exactly 1/4" seam, your HST’s might be too small. I know people don’t love trimming down pieces. (Especially in this case 28 HSTs for a single block!) However, if you do, your whole block will come together more easily when you do the rest of the assembly, and you’re far more likely to end up with the right finished size block.
TIP #3. For the ‘Paws’ larger HSTs, you can cut them the same size the pattern says, and since they are larger, you shouldn’t have as much trouble with getting them the right finished size. If your blocks are somehow too small, it would only be by about 1/16" - 1/32" over a 5" piece, not enough to mess up your whole block. (I still advise doing the Two at a Time Method)
HOWEVER: The same rule of scraps applies, as did above. When cutting a strip, to get my larger purple and orange blocks, I started by cutting a 5 1/2" strip, and then a 5 1/2" block. That way I had room to trim them down perfect. (I did the 12". If doing the 10" start with a 5" strip.) This also meant that I could trim the rest of the strip down to 5", and put it with my scrap 5" strips, or further into 5" squares, aka Charm Squares. Again, this size is highly useful in quilting, and also could be further cut down into two 2.5" strips or squares if needed in future.
TIP #4. This isn’t necessary, but if you have a choice of background fabrics, choose something that isn’t uni-directional. Because you’re going to slice and dice it, and it will get spun around so much, if you pick something that has one ‘right way up’, then you’re going to be annoyed when so many parts of it are sideways and upside down. The black script fabric I used had script written in every direction, so when sewn, it still feels like the same background. For example a good prints would be a small polkadot. A poor choice would be a stripe, or a print of cats all sitting the same way.