How to Make the Patchwork Block featured in the Hydrangeas in the Garden Table Runner and Quilt

Published May 2026

Learn how to make a star block and snowball block using the Hydrangeas in the Garden fabric collection in this step-by-step tutorial with Jen at Shabby Fabrics. Discover precision techniques for Half Square Triangles and Flying Geese using innovative tools like HST Perfect Papers and the Ultimate Flying Geese Tool, ensuring perfect blocks every time.

In this video, you'll learn:

• How to make eight half square triangles at a time with HST Perfect Papers.
• The fast flying geese technique with the Ultimate Flying Geese Tool.
• Exactly where to look and where to pin so your points land.
• How a presser bar and clapper open a seam that won't stay open.
• Why one pressing instruction runs opposite to what you'd expect.

Check the links for everything you need.

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Introduction

This block appears in both the table runner and the lap quilt, in the pink and the periwinkle colorways, so everything covered applies to all of them.

Hydrangeas in the Garden was our very first collection with Riley Blake. It took four rounds of strike offs to land the colors of hydrangeas as they actually grow in gardens across the country, and Riley Blake's team was every bit as relentless about getting there as we were. Many of the fabrics have a pearlescent finish in the background, which is subtle on the white on white and beautiful in person.

Both projects alternate two blocks: this patchwork block and a fussy cut floral vignette. The patchwork block breaks into three parts, and each part gets its own technique.

You don't need decades of quilting behind you for this. Every part of this block is broken down into small steps, and the tools do the work that used to depend on experience. If a block like this has felt out of reach, it isn't.

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What You'll Need

• HST Perfect Papers. Available in 1", 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3", 3.5", and 4", with 50 sheets to a pad.
• Creative Grids Ultimate Flying Geese Tool, SKU CGRDH4. This is the original, not the newer version two.
• Creative Grids seam guide. Comes in 9" and 15", and the 9" is plenty for this block.
• Gypsy Quilter presser bar and clapper combination
• Fussy cutting ruler for the floral block
• Rotary cutter with a fresh, sharp blade
• Spinning mat
• 2.5" ruler and a longer ruler for measurement checks
• Patchwork pins
• Friction heat-erasable marking pen
• Seam guide for your machine, plus diagonal seam tape if you like a runway into the needle
• Iron at full heat
• Full color pattern for the table runner or quilt

A fresh blade matters more than it seems. Subpar cuts and perfect blocks don't go together, and it took a while for that to sink in for a lot of us. Start with a sharp blade and good cutting tools, and everything downstream gets easier.

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Part 1: The Half Square Triangles

Half square triangles form the pinwheel at the center of this block and sit in all four corners.

Why we built HST Perfect Papers. The traditional rule of thumb is seven eighths. Cut both fabrics seven eighths larger than the finished size, which means finding 2.875" on a ruler. Draw a diagonal, pin, sew a quarter inch either side, cut, press, and hope the result is exactly 2.5". Often it wasn't, and since the pinwheel center depends on those units being accurate, an off unit means an off block.

Your pattern has you cut two fabrics to 6.5" squares, which sets you up for the papers.

Using the papers

1. Place your two 6.5" squares right sides together, lighter fabric on top if you like.
2. Shorten your stitch length to 1.5mm. More thread in a given distance, and it perforates the paper.
3. Pin the paper on top, placing pins only where you won't be sewing.
4. Sew on the dashed lines.
5. Cut on every solid line, precisely, because those cuts are your finished units.
6. Remove the papers and press as the arrows in your pattern indicate. For this block, both purples press toward the purple.
7. Trim the small dog ears.

Eight half square triangles from one sheet, with no squaring up. Lay a 2.5" ruler across one and it measures exactly that.

That's enough for two pinwheel blocks. Repeat with the light purple and white pairing for your corner units.

If you'd rather not use the papers, your pattern includes the traditional route. After cutting your 6.5" square, cut it in half and half again to 3.25", then make them two at a time and square up to 2.5".

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Part 2: Building the Pinwheel

Lay your four half square triangles out and check the orientation before you sew anything.

Because every unit was pressed toward the purple, the seams nest when you place two right sides together.

Which side to sew from

Sew with the pinwheel center facing up. The very center of the pinwheel is the point you care about most in this block. Turning the work so you can see that center as you approach it, rather than sewing it blind from the other side, is what gets it to land on the mark.

Pin right along the diagonal so nothing shifts, and sew with an accurate .25" seam. Press open, as the pattern indicates, to distribute the bulk.

Joining the two halves

Set the block down on the table in its correct orientation first. Two halves will happily sew together the wrong way round and give you an entirely different block.

1. Stack the two halves and look straight down from above. Seams pressed open have a tendency to roll off each other, so stacking them carefully matters.
2. Pin right up the middle first. That's the seam you care about.
3. Then pin the corners.

Look for the V, and pass the needle exactly through it. When seams are pressed open you'll see a small V where they meet. Your quarter inch seam needs to pass right at that point. Watching that spot as you sew is what puts the meeting of all those seams exactly where it belongs.

When a seam refuses to open

This center seam will want to close itself back up. A presser bar and clapper combination settles it.

1. Wrap the seam over the presser bar, which gives you a way to get the tip of the iron right into it.
2. Press it open, five, six, seven seconds.
3. Take the iron away and set the clapper straight down on top.

The clapper accepts the heat as the block cools while its weight holds the seam allowance flat. Lift it away and that seam stays open.

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Part 3: The Flying Geese Units

The fast flying geese technique produces four units from one large square and four small ones, with very little fabric wasted.

Drawing your lines

The pattern shows the traditional approach: draw the diagonal on the back of all four small squares, then track a quarter inch to either side of it as you sew.

Our preference is the Creative Grids seam guide, which lets you draw both sewing lines with a friction pen so you stitch on a line instead of beside one.

Assembling

1. Place two small squares in opposite corners of the large square, checking that the drawn lines run continuously across.
2. Pin first, then trim the overlapping fabric where the two squares meet. Reach underneath and cut only the top layer.
3. Sew directly on your drawn lines.
4. Cut corner to corner between the seams and press away.
5. Set a third small square into the corner of each half, pin, sew on the lines, cut corner to corner, and press to the outside.

Oversized means grace. You don't have to sew perfectly at this stage. You have to trim perfectly, and the tool does that part for you. That's a much easier thing to ask of yourself.

Trimming with the tool

The Ultimate Flying Geese Tool covers sizes from a .5" x 1" unit, which is for the miniature quilt makers among us, all the way up to 4" x 8".

This block uses letter D. The tool has a trim one and a trim two function.

1. Start with trim one. Settle the letter D lines into the saddle of your unit until everything lines up. Two sides sit under the acrylic and two are exposed, the right side and the top.
2. Trim those two sides.
3. Rotate the mat 90 degrees at a time rather than lifting the block, and come back with trim two, still on letter D.
4. You're looking for the V plus a line along the left and a line along the bottom. Trim.

Letter D finishes at 2" x 4", which means the trimmed unit measures 2.5" x 4.5". Check it with a long ruler and it's exact, every time.

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Assembling the Block

Lay the whole block out before you sew anything, and confirm every orientation.

The center row

Alignment is everything on this row, because the corners and points have to meet.

1. Line the pieces up looking from directly above, scooting slightly until the points sit where they should.
2. Pin where it matters first. Pin the point, then work outward to the corners.
3. Trim the small tail in the corner.
4. Sew, watching for the X where the seams cross, and pass the needle through it.
5. Press open and clapper it.

If a point is off, there's no hiding it. Which is exactly why the pin goes there first rather than working left to right and hoping. Being deliberate about the one or two pins that matter is what makes all those points hit.

The top and bottom rows

Because of how everything was pressed, these rows give you interlocking seams. One seam runs one way, the neighboring one runs the other, and they nest.

Pin at the points and in the corners, sew your .25", and press open as the pattern indicates.

The pressing directions in this pattern were carefully worked out. Interlocking seams are worth a great deal, and where we can get them we do. Where we can't, seams get pressed open to distribute the bulk instead, with pinning techniques to keep everything stacked top to bottom.

Joining the rows

With everything pressed open there are no seams to nest, so stack the rows top to bottom, looking from above, and pin along the length rather than pinning left or right and hoping. Sew your .25" and press open.

The table runner needs three of these blocks. The quilt needs a good many more.

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The Fussy Cut Block

The second block is a fussy cut floral, and a mission specific ruler makes it far easier to land on the sweet spot of the fabric.

1. Position the ruler over the part of the print you want and confirm the placement.
2. Rough cut around it to extract it from the larger piece, then come back and dial the cut in precisely.
3. Draw a diagonal on the back of four white on white squares, place one in each corner, and sew directly on the line.
4. Trim a .25" beyond the stitching on all four corners.

The pressing instruction that runs backwards

Instinct says press those corner triangles away from the center, and that's what most of us would do. Press them that way on both blocks and the seams end up running the same direction where the blocks meet, piling up bulk. Pressing toward the middle of the block instead gives you seams running opposite ways, and they nest beautifully.

The practical approach: press to the outside first, then flip the block over and work the seam back toward the middle.

Now when the blocks come together, the seams sit in opposite directions and land exactly where they should. Pin, sew your .25", and press open.

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Precise cutting, the right tools, pinning where it matters, and thoughtful pressing. Those four things take a block that used to be uncertain and make it close to certain, and none of them require years of experience!