So are the days of our lives!! My mama used to watch a daytime soap opera and I still remember the announcer saying,” As sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” Welcome to the first of six rounds of the Stay at Home Round Robin – 2026! Today I am kicking off the first round with my choice, that being an Hourglass block!
Hourglass blocks are easy and fun to make. I made mine two colors, but they can be made in three colors (or even four if you choose) as well. Those are known as split quarter square triangles. Julie Cefalu, The Crafty Quilter has a great tutorial HERE if you are interested in those. Hourglass blocks are simply made from four triangles. I used my 4″ AccuQuilt Qube to make mine. If you are making them without dies, there are charts available to show you the size squares you need to cut and you can find one of those below. This is from https://kristinlaura.com/.
And here they are added to my center block! The color in this background block is not nearly this yellow, it is more of a beige color than what it appears.
Now it’s time for you to make your Round One blocks and link up with me below. Remember, you interpret each prompt and it’s placement as YOU see fit! There are no quilting/designing police in this SAHRR!! Some of my blocks will be four inches and some will be six or eight inches. It’s all up to you! Make one block, make a row, or even a border!
If you don’t have a blog you can link up an Instagram post as well to be eligible for one of the many prizes that will be given away.
Visit each of the co-hosts and take a look at their interpretations of this round.
| January 14 | Everyone shares their center blocks | Gail @ Quilting Gail |
| January 21 | Round 1 | Brenda @ Songbird Designs – you are here! |
| January 28 | Round 2 | Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing |
| February 4 | Round 3 | Emily @ The Darling Dogwood |
| February 11 | Round 4 | Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts |
| February 18 | Round 5 | Gail @ Quilting Gail |
| February 25 | Round 6 | Anja @ Anja Quilts |
| March 25 | IT’s A PARADE! | Everyone shows their finish @ Quilting Gail !! |
Don’t forget the prizes!!
We reached out to several companies that we all LOVE and many of them agreed to sponsor the SAHRR 2026!!! We will keep track of all of the participants that link to our Linky parties each week. We will make a list and use a random number generator to choose the winners for each prize! So, if you link up to 3 Linky parties, you will have 3 opportunities to win! If you don’t have a blog or Instagram account, contact me, or one of the other co-hosts and we will post your SAHRR on our blog. This way you still have an opportunity to win! Here are some of the prizes you could win!
- Lumin Fabrics (Island Batik) – 3 Fat Quarter Bundles: Playful Posies, Geometric Symphony and Paradise Palms
- Hobbs Batting: wool batt
- Sew Fresh Quilts: 3 patterns
- Aurifil Thread
- Oliso mini Iron, mat and carrying case
- Fat Quarter Shop: Gift certificate and 2 charm packs
- Devoted Quilter: 2 patterns
- Songbird Designs: 1 pdf pattern
- Grace & Piece Co: t-shirt
- Quilter’s Dream: 8 assorted batts (we will give two at a time!)
- Crafty Quilter (Julie Cefalu): 2 patterns
Now, head to your studio and make your blocks then come back here and link up before next Wednesday for an entry for the prizes. This linky party ends at midnight Tuesday night, 1/27/26. Until next time…
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It was before midnight (PT) but I was too late to link. Oh well, you’ll see it next week when I link round 2. Hourglass is a fun block. I like your use top and bottom; I’ll maybe do that with one of the prompts to get a rectangle quilt. Or not.
Brenda your Hourglass blocks look great with your center block. What fun! Thank you for the great tips. It’s always wonderful to see bloggers link to another site when they have great tips 🤗
This is great prompt. I’m a little behind but I’ve enjoyed visiting everyone and I’m looking forward to seeing what next week’s prompt will be 🙂
Brenda, I visited all the blogs who posted to Linky, but all the WordPress blogs wouldn’t post my comments! Never had this issue before. Every time it told me it was a duplicate comment and wouldn’t take it. I tried changing my wording and still it wouldn’t accept my comment! I have never had an issue posting to your blog before, so I will see what happens now. I may end up emailing you this if it doesn’t work, although I know you cannot do anything about it. I thought maybe if others read this comment that are also having issues, they will know they are not alone.
The challenge was a good one, with these hourglass quilts. Thanks for the great prompt, as well as construction and measuring helps! (And can I get a bigger size of the SAHRR logo? I am hoping for something in the 1200px range. I couldn’t find an email on your blog (your contact form is acting up) so I’m leaving a comment hoping you’ll email me. Thanks!)
LOL Days of Our Lives is my favorite soap opera. I miss that it does not come on “regular TV” , but I still keep up with the “drama”. LOL Your hour glass blocks look amazing, Brenda! Well done.
Capturing the true colors of fabric is so difficult. I like your center block and the hourglass blocks. Thanks for sharing in Sew & Tell.
I still watch General Hospital! Love the hourglass blocks and that link to the cutting sheet is great!
I forgot to comment on your “as sands through the hourglass” – I used to watch that one, long time ago, and what a hoot to see that quote! LOL!
LOL!! I wondered if anyone would remember that!
I can’t believe I already had an Hour Glass option in my head! LOL. But it’s been revised to a 3 triangle Hour Glass, not sure what that’s called. Thanks for the prompt confirmation. Haha!
The mathematic chart is such a great help to remember. But to find the right fabric.. is feeling…. Thank you so much for the first prompt. Hope all have much much fun to participate!
Fun blocks! I especially like that red fabric. I did not get to comment last week but I absolutely LOVE your center block!!! I can’t wait to see this take shape!
Thanks so much, Emily!
I love how you put the hourglass blocks on the top and bottom!! It looks great!
Those hourglass blocks frame your center block so well! Great tips in your post as well!
I just love your center block, it has such great movement in it.
This will be a fun addition to our starting points. Thanks!
I really like that your hourglass blocks alternate colors and that the top and bottom borders are not perfectly symmetric. I’m going to ponder how I want to work with your prompt while I finish up the Project Quilting prompt for this week. I’m excited to add to the center. Thanks for the prompt this week!
So fun to see how you’re starting off with borders at the top and bottom, Brenda! Thanks for linking to the tutorial – that’s really helpful. Now I’m excited to get started on some hourglass blocks!
Oh my gosh Brenda this is crazy – I just made some quarter square triangles yesterday and followed Julie’s tutorial!! My fabric choices means they aren’t hourglass exactly, but hey I guess my block is already made – lol! I love your start, your center block is just so spectacular.
Thank you, Linda!! Well, how about that! I guess you were reading my mind! LOL
PS: It’s your interpretation, so even if they aren’t exactly hourglass – they are QSTs!!