Here are the two blocks:

Both of these blocks are, I believe, from Dear Jane.

Ralph & Nelda's Wedding is actually pretty straightforward. Ignore the bordering at this point. You are looking at a 12" square. (It was originally 12 1/2", but of course, the borders took the seam allowances.) Anyway, looking at it as a 12" block, it is apparent that you have two 6" squares and two 9 patches with 2" blocks. In cutting you will have to add the seam allowances. So, cut two 6 1/2" squares of color. Then cut eight 2 1/2" squares of color and ten 2 1/2" squares of background. Assemble the smaller squares into two nine-patches as shown. Finished, they should measure 6 1/2", the same as the two large color squares. Sew each nine-patch to a color square, set them out to be sure they are right, then join those pieces to complete the block. As I said, very straightforward. Border as per usual.

Now, Hopscotch is a sneaky devil. You can't trust it. As soon as you think you are smarter than it is, it'll get you! It looks easy, three 3 stripes and 4 background blocks. However, unlike our first very symetrical 3x3 and 4x4 layouts, this is actually a 4 x 4 layout with some of the units divided into 3 part! Go ahead, do the math, 4 into 3 results in a dimension of 1.33333 to infinity. Once again, decimals and inches don't match. There are times when I really wish quilts were worked in metric system. Oh, well. As the used car salesman said to the sweet young thing, "Trust me.". Having wasted quite a bit of fabric today, I can say with a great deal of authority that the easiest dimension to use for cutting strips to make the three stripe parts is 1 7/8". Cut two long strips of color fabric 1 7/8", then a strip of background 1 7/8". Sew these together, but as you do, allow your seams to be a little bit shy. When you finish, iron the strips, seams to the dark sides. Next use your ruler to measure and cut them to pieces 4 1/2" by the width of the strip. If everything is going well, the strip will be just a bit, maybe less than 1/8", wider than 4 1/2". Use your ruler and trim a very tiny bit off of one side, then turn the piece and trim the other side to produce a perfect 4 1/2" square. You will need ten of these.

Cut eight 4 1/2" squares of background.

Lay the pieces out to match the block and sew the units into rows, then sew the rows together. You should end up with very close to a 12 1/2" square. If you are over you can trim down, if under, don't worry, you can still come out OK by making your border too wide and then trimming down to the full size block dimension you are using. In my case, as noted in January and February's instructions, I ended up using 15 1/2".

The third block for this month is called Stepping Stones. It has no particular new technical difficulty. All of the steps involved have been taught in our exchanges. However, what it does have is complexity of design. Previously, we have worked with blocks that were three units by three units, i.e. nine patches. We have also done 4 x 4's, 16 patches; and 5 x 5's or 25 patches; and even, if you did some of the complex blocks, 7 x 7's, or 49 patches. This block is 8 units by 8 units, or a 64 patch. Obviously, this makes the individual units quite small, 1 1/2" finished size. Also, with so many units, it is ever so easy to get confused. Exercise extreme care and go very slowly. Double and triple check before sewing every seam to make sure that when you unfold it, it will have the orientation you want. Also, with so many seams, it is hard to get things to come out right. As always, read the entire directions and plot it out in your head. Observe where I made my mistakes and learn from them. Here we go:

This is the finished Stepping Stones block, before bordering. Let me say right off that I am not happy with my color choices. The 1930's repro fabrics just don't provide the strong color contrast I think this block needs to show the dramatic impact that it can have. The fact that my light was really bad and I couldn't get a good picture didn't help. I'll try again with daylight tomorrow. (I did get a better picture, see below.) However, you can see the block design. It will become even clearer in the assembly stages below.

Study the block and you will note that what we have here is four 4 patches, not quite in the corners. Each of these is trimmed on its outer edge with an extra couple of units to provide the "stepping stones" that give the block its name. These corner units, which can be viewed as 9 patches, are separated by four "arms" with arrows, each pointing to the square center unit. We will begin by making the four patches and the corner trim units. (Note: I have deliberately chosen to show this block without its sashing, or border. That will be added later, with green corners. However, at this point it would simply confuse the issue.)

To accomplish the steps above, you will need to first make the four patches, which consist of 2" squares. Note that in my block, I am treating red as the dark color, green as the medium color, and the muslin or white as the background. As always, I cut my pieces oversize and trimmed down to get the most perfect units I could. There are so many seams in this block that being out of size can really mount up.

Once you have the 4 patches, you need to cut the outside corner pieces. Now, you have a choice here. The basic units of our block are 1 1/2" finished. You will need a 2" square of the background material for each corner, or 4 squares. You can treat the dark units in two ways. You can either make each one out of two 2" squares, or you can cut rectangles 2" x 3 1/2", saving a seam. This is what I did, and I'm not at all certain it was easiest. It might be less confusing to stick with the 2" squares to make your 1 1/2" units uniform all through.

For the next step, you have to cut a center square of the medium fabric. This square has to finish up the same size as a 4 patch would be, i.e. four of our blocks units. It should therefor measure 3 1/2" square.

You will also need 8 regular 2" squares of medium fabric. This will be the center of each arrow arm.

For the points and ends of the arrows, you will need 16 half-square triangle blocks, made from the dark and the medium fabrics. Make these in the same manner as we always have, cutting them oversize and trimming to a finished size of 2". I cut 8 squares of red and 8 squares of green, each 3" square.

OK, here the top left corner has been corrected, and the half-triangle pieces have been laid out, along with the squares of the medium material and the large center square, to make the arrow-arms. In sewing these arrow arms, you will be working with many small pieces, and they MUST be joined correctly or the block won't be right. I worked very slowly, picking up only two pieces at a time, sewing them together, ironing them and then laying them into position. Only then would I pick up another two pieces.

My recommendation is to sew the bottom arrow-arm together first, then join it to the two bottom corners, completing the bottom three rows of small units. Next, sew the right and left arrow-arms together and join them to the center square. Finally, sew the top arrow-arm and join it to the top right and left corners. You now have what amounts to three rows to join. I measured my three units at this point and trimmed them. A lot of slop had crept in, with edges not smooth and square. The two wide units should measure 5" wide, the middle unit 3 1/2" wide. I trimmed edges that would be joined. This was fairly easy in my case, as my total block was coming out slightly oversized. These measurements total 13 1/2". There are two seams left to sew, which will use 1/2" of fabric each, leaving you, theoretically, with a 12 1/2" block. Mine was more like 12 3/4". I could have left it and made the final adjustment to match the other blocks in the border, but since it was a small amount, I chose to carefully trim all four edges of the block at this point. This left me with a nearly perfect block to put the border or sashing on.