MMQAL Addition

Thanks for coming over from Penny's! Have you been having as much fun with the Marcelle Medallion Quilt Along as I have? As I was getting close to the last border on my Marcelle Medallion I was getting excited about finishing (finally!) but then a little voice in my head said "that's it?" I mean I've spent the last few weeks almost exclusively and it's just shy of 60" square. So I looked around Instagram and saw that others had added borders of their own and decided that's what I must do! I fell in love with the churn dash blocks on the Midnight at Oaisis quilt and it was a quick decision after that. So with a stoke of luck I fell upon the best measurement to make these teeny tiny churn blocks fit. Border 7 ends at 57.5" and taking into consideration the seam allowances I found that 19 3" churn dash blocks will fit perfectly on one side. So I put together a mini tutorial for these tiny churns.

For one 3.5" unfinished churn block you will need to cut:

From main color - 2-2" squares

                             2-2x1.5" rectangles

From background color - 2-2" squares

                             2-2x1.5" rectangles

                             1-1.5" square

For border 7 you need 76 churn blocks plus 4 cornerstones. See the bottom for a special hint on the cornerstones!

If you are cutting scrappy you will need 152 each of all the 2" squares and rectangles, but only 76 1.5" squares. I hope that makes since. I cut almost always from yardage so I like to count how many low volume prints I have (say 15 for this round) and then I will try to cut about 5 churns from each print-give or take on a few. 
So once you have all of your squares cut it is time to start assembling your blocks.

Put the rectangles right sides together and sew down both the short sides. Where I have drawn a line here: (ignore the squares for now) 

Once both sides are sewn bring it to your cutting mat and cut 1" down the middle (parallel to the sewing lines. 

Once pressed open they should measure 1.5" square. 

Next take the 2" squares and make Half square triangles (HSTs as they are usually denoted.) place two right sides together. Sew down either side of the diagonal. Press then trim to a 1.5" square. 

Once everything is pressed and trimmed you can lay them out as so:

Looking good! I like to bring them over to my machine and chain piece as much as I can. I haven't figured out how to do multiple at a time, but I assume lots of organization. 

Sew the squares into rows:

Then the rows together to complete the square!

I've also tried pressing open and to the dark side and neither one seemed better than the other. Maybe a little easier to sew through on the open seams, but quicker to press to one side. 

 For the cornerstones:

I will be using an inverse churn block! Using the main color as background and the low volume as the main print. As you can see from above. If you don't want to make those extra 4 churn blocks, you can simply use 3.5" squares for some rest amid the craziness.