A fish for you

As requested, and then promised, I've prepared a tutorial for the fish block I used in my recent baby quilt (shown *here*).

When I was wanting to insert the row of pieced fish in the quilt, I couldn't find one that was quite like what I wanted.
After a bit of sketching, I had something I could draw up in EQ8...then I could work out what would be a good size for my particular project.

Anyway, without further ado, here's what I did.

Six Inch Pieced Fish

Here's what you cut —
Main body of fish - 1 x (3 ½" square) plus 1 x (4 ½" square cut into quarters) *more on this later*
Fins and tail of fish - 2 x (2" squares) plus 1 x  (4 ½" square cut into quarters) *more on this later*
Background fabric - 4 x (2" x 3½" rectangles) plus 2 x (2" squares)

plus 1 x ( (4 ½" square cut into quarters) *more on this later*

These are laid out as they will be in the finished block.

* If you look at the photo above you will see that the tail unit of the fish only requires 1 of the body fabric triangles, 1 of the tail fabric triangles and 2 of the background fabric triangles. This is ok if you are making a lot of fish as you will use the leftovers for more fish. If you're just making one or two fish, you may like to cut a paper template and use it to just cut the quarters needed, to save lots of loose triangles cluttering up your scrap bin. If you do make a paper template remember to keep the grainlines correct.
Here's what I mean —

Draw diagonal lines on the back of the 2" squares —

Place the 2" squares on two of the  (2" x 3½" background squares), and the (3 ½" fish body square) as shown below —

Sew on the drawn lines, press and trim the excess fabric from the back of the pieces —

Sew the above units together (whoops, I forgot to take the photo) as laid out in the above photo. Put aside for now.

Sew the triangles together into pairs—

And then sew the two pairs together. Trim this unit to 3½". The centre of the unit will be at the 1¾" mark.

Sew the two remaining (2" x 3½" rectangles) to either side of this unit —

Sew the two units together —

(See how I've pressed my seams so they nest nicely)(Yes, you'll notice an error below) —

Don't get distracted like I did —

Correct version of fish —

Your fish will now measure 6½"  - 6" once sewn into the finished quilt.

I hope this is clear and easy to follow. Just ask any questions in the comment section. And let me know if  you use it :-)

It's day three of lock down for me. Keeping well and truly sane so far.  For today's walk I didn't climb any big hills.

Instead I turned right at the bridge —

And had a flatter walk. It was a beautiful morning —

'til next time,

safe and happy stitches,