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I thought Jane's block was a little more elegant than Brenda's draft in the book. Part of what bugged me was that the vertical and horizontal elements seemed to dominated because they are wider than the diagonal ones.

So, basically, I turned this block into a "square on point" with pieced corners. It's a typically Jane design. All the strips finish at 3/8". The inside-most square is 3/8" x 3/8".

Construct the square first as a 9-patch, with the "courthouse steps" stripping around it. Then, either piece or applique the curves for the corner pieces. Once done, the whole thing will go together like D13.

Silly me wanted a challenge, so I turned B13 into one...biting off almost more than I could chew!

In the original quilt B13 is one of the few blocks with more than two fabrics, I think. The reason I don't actually know is because it could be that Jane just cut out a motif from a piece of cloth and just put it in her quilt. I can't actually tell if the "piecing lines" are actually simply quilting lines.

Anyway, instead of using the very simple draft in the book and hunting for fabrics which worked like Jane's, I took the center square and pieced it using the diamond motifs which already appear in the quilt. These are 1.5" long by 3/4" wide diamonds.

If you like the appearance of this block, and don't want to go the extra bother of piecing it (and I certainly don't blame you!), consider simply applique-ing the diamonds on.

Looking closely at C5, I saw pieces which did not appear on Brenda's draft. After actually constructing the block with the extra pieces I heartily encourage you to construct it the way it appears in the book. But if you're a glutton for punishment, here is what I did:

I pieced the corner curves first, then center in quarter "pies." The two outer curves are pieced together and then pieced (or appliqued) to the outside square.

Probably the easiest way to do the inside pie pieces if you are machine piecing this is to start out with quarter square triangles, piece until they become half-square triangles and THEN cut the curve using a template.

Don't be tempted to complete the center pie. It is much easier to piece a quarter pie to the outside than it side to do the whole circle UNLESS you are appliqueing it.

The center quarter pies were then pieced to the edge quarters forming squares. Finish the block as you would a 4-patch.

I thought C9 the way Jane pieced it was actually simpler than Brenda's draft even though there were more pieces.

The only difference is that the background is made up of 4 quarter-square triangles of fabric. This allows you to easily see where to applique the "tears."