More Patchwork Possibilities for Elevenses

The Elevenses Backpack was designed to have a lot of opportunities for creativity, from combining colors and textures to adding patchwork to the pocket or panels. The instructions include a tutorial for adding a sawtooth star block to the front pocket. And our Learn to Sew a Backpack course goes even further into quilting and piecing techniques and options.

And right here we have the measurements and isntructions for a couple of other patchwork possibilities for the pocket of the Elevenses Backpack. You could also use these instructions to make a patch to include on the Lembas Laptop Sleeve pattern.

And feel free to think up your own! You’ll just want to cut your block to 7.5″ (19 cm), so that it finishes to 7″ (17.8 cm) square. Then you can use the Block Side, Block Bottom, and Block Top pieces from the included Sawtooth Star Tutorial.

Half-Square Triangle Block

One option we love is using half-square triangles to make your patchwork. You can use two or more fabrics for this, and laying them out in different ways gives you a lot of possibilities for different styles. This cutting list assumes two fabrics, ideally a light and a dark for good contrast. Feel free to use multiple light and multiple dark fabrics for your block.

Cutting 

• two 4 ⅜” (11.1 cm) squares in a light fabric
• two 4 ⅜” (11.1 cm) squares in a dark fabric 

Sewing

1. Using chalk or water-soluble pen mark your each of the blocks on the wrong side down the diagonal center.
2. Lay one dark square on one light square, right sides together. 
3. Sew ¼” (6 mm) from your marked line.
4. Sew ¼” (6 mm) again from the other side of the marked line.
5. Using a rotary cutter and quilting rule, or scissors, carefully cut the block in half on the marked line. Open them up and press the seam allowance in one direction (I like to press towards the darker farbic.) 
6. Repeat with the other two squares. You now have 4 half-square triangle blocks! 

Now comes the fun bit, laying them out! 

You could arrange all of your blocks facing the same way. Like so:

If you have used multiple dark and light fabrics you could arrange them with the shade in and tint out, or vice versa.

Or you can arrange them so they form a pinwheel.

Whichever way you choose, piece two blocks together at a time. Then carefully pin to match your points and sew your two rows together. 

There you have it! Half-square triangles present a lot of fun opportunities for customizing. You could cut out a lot of teeny tiny ones for a very intricate block. Or just add one in the bottom corner of a panel. 

Square Within a Square

A square within square quilt block consists of 3 fabrics and finishes to 7” x 7” (17.8 x 17.8 cm). Unfinished, it will be 7 ½” x 7 ½” (19 x 19 cm).

Cutting

Fabric 1 – cut 1 square 4” (10.1 cm) (center of the block).

Fabric 2 – cut 2 squares 3 ½” (8.9 cm) (first round of triangles/inner pieces).

Fabric 3 – cut 2 squares 4 ½” (11.4 cm) (second round of triangles/outer pieces).

Cut the inner ((3 ½” (8.9 cm)) and outer ((4 ½” (11.4 cm)) squares on the diagonal as shown in the photo.  Cutting the diagonal in opposite directions will ensure a directional print or stripe will line up correctly when sewn to the sides of the square. We will now refer to these are the inner triangles and outer triangles, respectively.

Sewing

All seam allowances are ¼” (6 mm).

Mark the center of the long edge of the inner triangles with a pin or a marking pencil.  Mark the center of the center square on opposite sides.

Pin the inner triangles in place to opposite sides of the center square matching up the center point.  The ends of the inner triangles will extend past the edges of the center square. 

Stitch the pieces together using a ¼” (6 mm) seam allowance. 

Press the seam allowance toward the inner triangles.

Sew the remaining 2 inner triangles to the sides of the center square.

Trim away the excess tips of the inner triangle points.

Press the seam allowance toward the inner triangles. This will now be referred to as the center assembly.

Mark the center of the long edge of the outer triangles.  Pin in place matching up the center of the outer triangles to the center of center assembly.

Stitch the pieces together using a ¼” (6 mm) seam allowance.  Repeat steps 4 through 7 to complete the outer triangles.

Finishing Up

For either block, stitch the pocket pieces to the patchwork square following the directions in the Elevenses Backpack pattern. Those are just two blocks, in addition to the star block included in the pattern that you could try for your Elevenses Backpack. Let your creativity shine, and make this heirloom project your own.

There are so many other ways to get creative with patchwork for your Elevenses Backpack. We explore even more about quilting and patchwork in our online Learn to Sew a Backpack course.

And if you really want to lean into creative patchwork check out Saremy’s tutorial here on the blog about how she picked her colors and sewed extra-spectacular version of the Elevenses Sunburst quilt design.