Fabric
⅛ yard or a Flat Quarter each of three fabrics.
You have a choice of printing on regular 8 ½” x 11” paper, or legal paper 8 ½” x 14”.
Template – for cutting pieces
Legal
Letter – you will need to tape piece H together, printed on two pages
Paper piecing – for assembling
Legal or Letter
If you print the templates on a piece of parchment paper or freezer paper, you can iron to your piece of fabric so you do not need to pin to the fabric.
Paper piecing, you can print on copy paper, or newsprint. After you have assembled the block you will need to remove the paper from the block. You will need to do this carefully so you do not tear out your seams at the same time. Make sure to adjust the stitch width when sewing with paper, to help make the paper easier to remove. The thicker the paper the smaller the stitch to help remove without pulling out the stitches.
Here is a way to use stabilizer (or sew in interfacing) to print on and then you will not need to remove from the block, and it will not add stiffness to the block.
Printing Paper-Piecing file on stabilizer.
Cut a piece of Parchment paper to the size of 8 ½ x 14” (legal size).
- Cut a piece of stabilizer to 8 ½” x 14
- Iron the stabilizer to the parchment paper
3. Repeat for all three pieces (or 4 pieces if doing letter size)
(You can reuse the parchment paper, so do not throw away, or use to print the templates on.)
Load into your printer, with the stabilizer side to the side your printer will print on.
Print each page, recommend doing one page at a time.
Remove the stabilizer from the parchment paper (just pull apart).
Please note which side is the right side, you can read the numbers, or write a “F” on before pulling off the parchment paper, so you can easily see the correct side.
If you stitch on the wrong side, it will not match correctly, and will have to re-do or use the seam ripper to take out stitching. (I did this on one block).
Cutting Fabric Pieces
Using the Template cut the following pieces (Qty-piece):
Pink – 6-M,1-J,2-N,1-I,1-K,6-B
Flower – 10-L,2-D,1-B,1-M
Dot – 1-O,1-C,1-G,1-F,1-A,1-E,1-H
You do not need to cut out exact to template, it just helps that they be around the size of the template to avoid waste. You will see that my pieces are a little larger in the pictures, this does not cause a problem, just need to cut back to ¼’ seams to make less bulk.
The paper piecing will create a 11” finished block, you will need to add ¾” piece to each side, to create a 12 ½” unfinished block.
Assembly
You will create 4 different blocks that will be assembled together to finish the block.
Block 1
Look for the block that has “A” on number. This is block one. You will need to find two pieces to assemble to make the block.
Match the stitch lines (darker lines), and then glue or tape the pieces together.
If you use stabilizer, I recommend using a glue stick, since you will not be removing the stabilizer from the block. You can use the iron to dry the glue. Make sure to use washable glue sticks.
Two pieces glued together to create first block piece.
Starting with a piece “L” flower triangle. Put on the block A1 on the backside, right side out. I used the glue stick to hold in place.
Next lay a piece of “B” on top of piece “L” right sides together.
Next with right side of the stabilizer looking up, stitch on the seam line.
Note, you can see that on this picture you can read the “A” numbers on the stabilizer. If you are using paper, you will have to hold the paper towards light to make sure you align the fabric correctly.
Finger press (Or iron) the top piece open.
Continue to add pieces to each side of piece “L”.
You can follow the pattern by starting with A1 adding A2, A3, A4…. until that row is done.
Front side of stabilizer (above)
Back side of stabilizer (front side of block.)
Fold back the stabilizer on the line between the stitched row and piece H.
Using a ruler, cut the fabric only (not stabilizer) a ¼” from the line. To create your seam allowance.
¼” seam allowance.
Piece H – Dots
Open back up the stabilizer.
Lay piece H on top of the row you just finished, fronts together. Stitch down line.
Finger press the dots up.
Add piece “I” pink to the left side of the dots, and piece “J” to the right side.
Press open the pink.
Attach pieces “C” and “O” to the sides of pink pieces “I” and “J”.
Press open “C” and “O”.
Last step for this block is to cut ¼” from each side of the block solid lines.
Make sure to give a full ¼” on all sides, so you can attach to the next piece.
Set this piece aside for now.
Block 2
You will need pieces “K” (pink) and “A” & “E” (dots)
Make sure to glue piece “K” on the backside of the stabilizer piece.
Sew Piece “A” & “E” to the sides of “K”.
Press “A” and “E” and then trim the piece to ¼” from the dark lines.
Assemble Block A & B
Lay block B on top of block A, making sure to line up correctly.
Pin and Sew the two pieces together.
Press up, and set aside.
Block 3 & 4
Assemble the same way as the first row of Block 1. Starting with a piece of “L” and work you way out.
After trimming blocks 3 & 4 to ¼” on all sides. Attach block 3 to block 4. Press.
Attach block 3 to block 1, press.
Finish Block
Add pieces of “F” and “G” to the left and right side of the block.
Check all the sides of the block to make sure they are ¼” from the dark line.
Attach ¾” x 11 ½” strips of the dots to the left and right side of the block.
Attach ¾” x 12 ½” strips of the dots to the top and bottom of the block.
Your block is now done.
Thank you for joining us in this Seasonal Block of the Month!
Click here for a PDF version of the Blog.
See You next month for the May Block!