Buckeye Beauty Baby Quilt

I recently found out that a cousin of my husband is going to have a baby boy soon.  As they are big fans of OSU Buckeyes, I wanted to make a quilt with the Buckeye Beauty block - a traditional block.  As luck would have it, this Missouri Star Quilt Company Jacob's Ladder tutorial was e-mailed to me a couple of days ago.  I brought out a layer cake of Deb Strain's Meadow Friends from my stash.  Jenny uses charm packs in the tutorial, but I wanted to see what I could do with a layer cake.  I pulled out 16 squares that I liked and went to work.

Here is a picture of the top:

(Buckeye Beauty is also called Jacob's Ladder)

 

For the half square triangles, I marked a line diagonally from each corner.  I sewed a scant 1/4" from each side of the line drawn.  I then cut down each of the lines and down the middle.  Here is a picture:

 

 

 



I used my 4 1/2" HST Bloc-Loc to square them up.  (This is a gadget that I am using and enjoying!)

 

 

 

Here is how I made the 4 patch from the layer cake squares:

 

 

 

I marked a line down the middle of the square and then stitched a scant 1/4" on each side of the line.  I stitched down each edge of the squares going in the same direction.  I cut on the line in the middle, rotated the block 90 degrees and cut down the middle (5" in).  I rotated the block back and cut 2 1/2" from the middle cut parallel to the stitching 1/4" in from the middle and on the edges.  I pressed those open, laid them right sides together with the same colors opposite and seams nested, and sewed down the two edges again.  I then cut 2 1/2" in from the edge.

 

 

To use up the other layer cake pieces, I decided to go with a keyboard border.   I used leftover pieces in the backing. 

 

 

There you have it, how to make a Buckeye Beauty baby quilt with a layer cake!  A great time saver!  The ending size is about 42" x 42".  I did have about 5 pieces of the layer cake left.  So glad that I bought fabric for backing and binding back when I got the layer cake!