Quilting - Step 4 (Piecing the Blocks)

This series is for my dad. He learned a lot about quilting while we were in Bayfield for New Year's, and he seemed surprised at all the steps involved in quilting. I started this quilt back in January, but have been waiting to publish the posts detailing each and every step until after I gave the quilt away to its intended recipients.


STEP 4: Piecing the Blocks

This is by far the most complicated step of the whole process. Basically, all quilts are made up of smaller blocks. This particular quilt is just 16 identical blocks. You can see in the design here where I marked one block in pen in the top left corner. So now you just piece together all the fabric to make those blocks. (Obviously these exact steps will vary depending on what your design is.) Here are the steps for one block of this "Hug and Kiss" design:

A. Sew the strips together (with like sides facing each other). (Always use 1/4" seams!)

B. Iron apart.

C. Cut into the appropriate length pieces.

D. Sew together as "four-patch" mini-blocks.

E. Now for the triangles, draw a line on the back of the lighter squares.

F. Pin together the lighter squares and the darker squares. Then sew 1/4" seams to the left and to the right of the line.

G. Cut the squares down the line in order to make triangles. Iron apart.

H. Lay out the pieces of the block. Then sew together.

As far as sewing together goes, imagine the above pieces are each numbered like this:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
You'd first sew 1+2, 4+5, and 7+8. Then press (iron) them open. Then add on 3 to the 1+2 section, 6 to the 4+5 section, and 9 to the 7+8 section - so now you'd have three wide strips. Press open the new seams. Finally, sew together 1+2+3 to 4+5+6, and then sew on 7+8+9. Press open.

I. Maybe this is painfully obvious to everyone else out there, but I'd highly recommend double (and triple) checking every piece before you sew it together. If you don't, you may end up with something like this:


GAH!!! Booooo. That's when you kick yourself really hard, spend forever ripping open the seam you just sewed, and then re-sew it correctly:


Ta da! One block done.
Now just repeat the above steps 15 more times...

(As an aside, perhaps now you can see why it's so important to measure exactly and to always use 1/4" seams. By the time you piece together all of these mini-blocks into bigger blocks, and then piece together all of the big blocks to make the whole quilt, any little errors can add up to inches or more across the entire quilt. So try to be exact the first time, so you won't have to resort to pulling and stretching your fabric to make it fit - like I usually have to.) :)