Welcome! This has been a year of a lot of firsts for me! The latest "first" is designing a block for this blog hop.
First of all, thank you Cloud9 for providing the beautiful fabric for this blog hop and to Yvonne Fuchs at
Quilting Jetgirl, Stephanie Naso Palmer of
Late Night Quilter and Cheryl Kaminsky Brickey of
Meadow Mist Designs for organizing it. I am so looking forward to seeing everybody's creations!
Kudos to all those who design patterns for a living, as this was WAAAAY harder than I thought it would be. I seem to have a fascination with 3-D looking things. My two most visited posts on my blog (
Pretzel Twist and
Shadow Block Mini Blog Hop) are both about quilts that have that three dimensional look to them. In fact, this block is a modified version of the Pretzel Twist. Just a little more 3-D. I searched for a similar block design but didn't find one. If this already exists, please let me know. Without further ado, may I present . . .
SQUARE CHAIN LINKS
Here is my practice block . . .
Here is the test block which an unsuspecting friend (thank you Leanne) graciously agreed to sew using my tutorial with nothing but the instructions (no pictures). Here is her version . . .
And here is the final version using the beautiful Cloud9 fabrics. When I first saw this color palette, they immediately made me think of shadows.
Right off the bat I will say I picked too hard a design for my skill level. I am still not very good at consistent 1/4" seams yet so matching seams was a problem for me as you can see. Even after practicing once, I still didn't quite get it right.
As I was making my final block, disaster struck! I had taken pictures of the process and halfway through ended up having to change memory cards as the one I was using locked up on me. I thought I could still retrieve the pictures, but now I can't even find the card I was using! Grrr. I only have pictures for the last few steps of the block and the final finished product. I will keep looking for my card so I can insert the pictures later. UPDATE: I did find my card; however, whatever caused it to lock up also prevented any saving of pictures so I lost all the pictures I took during the sewing of my block. Boo. :(
If you like this block at all, hopefully the diagram I have provided and the written instructions will be enough to complete it. My apologies! If you have the diagram to look at as you're following the instructions, it should be fairly easy to follow along.
I highly recommend pinning a label (1A, 1B, 1C, etc) to the pieces you cut
as shown in the diagram below as this will help you later in locating which
piece gets sewn to which without having to measure them every time! You will need
28 labels. Here are the labels you will need if you don’t already have a labeling system.
Fabric Needed--A fat quarter of each is more than sufficient and even a fat eighth of each would work.
Background (or fabric #1)
Cut two 2” strips the length of the FQ and then subcut
into
1B, 1C and 1D
Cut 1 ½” strip the length of FQ and subcut into 1E, 1F
and 1G
4” x 1” (1H)
9” x 4 ½” ( 1A)
1A 4 ½” x 4 ½”
(cut two)
1B 8 ½” x 2” (cut two)
1C 4 ½” x 2” (cut two)
1D 3” x 2” (cut
two)
1E 4” x 1 ½”
(cut two)
1F 3” x 1 ½”
(cut two)
1G 1 ½” x 1
½” (cut one)
1H 1” x 1” (cut four)
|
Dark Blue (or fabric #2)
From a 1” strip at least 21 ½” cut the following
2A 2” x 1” (cut two)
2B 4 ” x 1 ”
2C 3” x 1” (cut
two)
2D 5 ½” x 1”
2E 2 ½” x 1”
|
Light Blue or Fabric #3
From a 1 ½” strip at least 21” cut the following
3A 2” x 1 ½”
3B 5 ½” x 1 ½”
(cut two)
3C 3” x 1 ½”
(cut two)
3D 2 ½” x 1 ½”
|
Dark Pink (or Fabric #4)
From 1” strips totaling at least 23” and sub cut the
following
4A 2” x 1”
4B 3” x 1”
4C 1 ½” x 1 (cut
two)
4D 4 ½” x 1”
4E 6 1/2” x 1 ”
4F 3” x 1”
|
Light Pink (or Fabric #5)
Cut a 1 ½” strip at least 22” and then subcut into the
following:
5A 2 x 1 ½”
5B 3 x 1 ½”
(cut two)
5C 4 ½” x 1 ½”
5D 2 ½” x 1
½” (cut two)
5E 4 ½” x 1
½”
|
|
Follow pressing instructions for
best results but if no pressing instructions are given, it is your preference.
To get the teeny tiny difficult
pieces out of the way first, take the four 1H’s and pin them right sides together to one end of each
of the following: 4E, 4D, one of the
2C’s, and 2D as shown
On 2D and 4E, sew diagonally across
1H from top left corner to bottom right corner
On 2C and 4D, sew diagonally across 1H from top right corner to bottom left
corner
When you sewed the diagonal line on 1H it created a triangle flap. Flip up and press. Trim off excess triangles on the back
Put those four items with the
small triangles attached (4E, 4D, 2C, 2D) back with their labels.
Sew the long side of 4C to the end of 1E, press to dark
side.
With 4C at the top, sew 5E on the right side of the two
you just sewed together
Sew one 5D onto each end
Sew 4E to the
right side of 5E
Sew 4F to the end of 5D as shown, press toward 4F
Sew 1D to 4F, press toward 1D
Sew 1B to the right side of entire unit as shown
Sew 1A to top of unit as shown
You'res 1/3 done!
Section 2 (Middle Section)
Sew one of the 4C’s to 1G
With 4D on the top, now sew 4A to the left of that unit
and press away from 4A
Sew 5A to the top of that unit
Sew 5B to the left of that unit and press away from 5B
Sew 1F to the top of that unit
Add 2C to the top of that unit (press toward 2C)
Add 3C to the top of that unit (press toward 2C)
Sew 3B to the right of that unit
Sew 2D to the right of 3B and press toward 3B
Sew 1C to the top of entire unit and press toward 1C
Set that unit aside
Sew 3D to the top of 2E
Sew 2A to the right side of that unit and press toward 2A
Sew 1F to the bottom of that unit
Sew 4B to the left of that unit and press toward 4B
Sew 5B to 4B and press toward 5B
Sew 5C to the bottom of that unit and press away from 5C
Sew 4D to the bottom of 5C and press toward 4D
Sew 1C to 4D and press toward 4D
Now sew this unit to the bottom of the previous unit we
set aside
Section 3
Sew 2B to the left side of 1E
Sew 2A to top of that unit making sure 2B is on the left,
press away from 2A
Sew 3A to 2A, open and press away from 3A
Sew 3B to the left side of unit which should be touching
2B, 2A and 3A
Sew 1D to the top of the unit, press away from 1D
Sew 3C to the bottom of the unit
Sew 2C to the bottom of 3C
Sew 1B to the left side of the unit
Sew 1A to the bottom of the unit
Sew Section 1 to the right side of Section 2
Sew Section 3 to the left side of Section 2
We’re through! You
should have a 12 ½” block (that will finish as 12”) .
My assessment of my own design? Although it is interesting to look at, I would not want to make a whole quilt of this block; although if you like modern, I think it makes a great mini quilt or a one block baby quilt! I will have to see if I can make an enlarged version for a baby quilt. That would be much easier to put together.
Please take the time to visit the other block designers on this blog hop. All of these blocks are going to be sewn together by Cheryl to make a quilt or two for charity. I'm looking forward to seeing all of them together!
Monday, September 12th
Host: Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl
Visit Yvonne for a chance to win some Cirrus solids!
Tuesday, September 13th
Wednesday, September 14th
