Storm at Sea Block (18")

I finally got one more quilt block wrapped up this weekend:  the Storm at Sea block.  Storm at Sea is an optical illusion of a block;  though every seam in the block is a straight one, the final block makes you think there's a bit of curve happening.  Though I've seen really multicolored versions of this block, I decided to stick with a classic 2-tone version (warm pinks/purples and cool greens/blues)

There are 3 main components of the block:  a diamond-y rectangle (you'll need 4 for one block), a large square which kinda looks like the start of a pineapple block (you'll need 1 for the center), and a smaller square with the same pseudo-pineapple design (you'll need 4 for the corners). 

Little corner squares

For all of the corner squares in the block, I cut 4 x 2-1/4" warm squares (A), 4 x 3-1/2" cool squares (B), and 8 x 3-1/8" squares (half warm and half cool -C).  The A squares go in the center, and quarter-square triangles made from the B squares are the first ring out.  Half-square triangles from C squares round the corner blocks out.  The final squares (before sewing them into the rest of the block) should be 5".  Once these are sewn into the final block/quilt, they'll measure in at 4.5".

Big central square

The large central square is similarly constructed.  This time, the A' square is 5", the B' square is 5-3/4" (only need 1), and the C' squares are 5-5/8" (need 2).  The completed square should be 9.5" before it's sewn into the center of the block (and 9" afterwards).

 

The diamond-filled rectangles are probably the trickiest part of this block, and they can either be paper-pieced or just well-measured.  Since I had a wonderful assistant converting this block pattern to make a 18" final block, I went with a hybrid of the two.  I got two paper templates:  a 9" x 4.5" diamond and a right triangle with 4.5" and 2.25" legs (both templates had 1/4" seam allowances).  I cut four diamonds, 16 triangles, and sewed everything together.

Once all the components were stitched, it was just a matter of sewing a couple more seams and voila!