quilt blocks – Page 2 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Scrappy Trees Tutorial

16 Comments / block tutorials, quilt blocks, tutorial / By Melissa Dunworth

I was so excited when Kim from Kim’s Crafty Apple asked me if I would be interested in doing a tutorial for her Home Sweet Home QAL. I immediately jumped in with both feet and said YES! A couple weeks later PANIC set in – as it always does when I have a deadline and absolutely NO idea what I am going to make. At first I tossed around the idea of a Tree House of some sort – after all Anne is obsessed with Berenstain Bears and as you probably know, they live in a killer tree house. As I played and tooled around, I ended up designing a few blocks in EQ7 of scrappy little trees.

If this is your first time to my blog, WELCOME! Please take a few minutes to look around, I have a tutorials page with over 30 free tutorials for quilts, blocks & techniques and I am hosting a very generous giveaway right now from Fat Quarter Shop.

The nice thing is that each individual tree makes a 6.5” (6” finished) block – so if you would like to make 6” blocks from the individual trees you can.

Three of the trees were made using the Tri-Recs ruler – provided to me by Fat Quarter Shop (stop by tomorrow for another tutorial and for a review on it). I have provided PDF downloads of templates for those of you who do not own the Tri-Recs ruler and would like to make this block.

For the Double Tree Block – please go here to download the templates.

For the Pine Tree Blocks – please go here to download the templates.

Each of these blocks was made entirely out of scraps – including the Kona White background – I used 1 strip measuring 3.5” wide for the entire project. All seams are ¼” – you can press open or to the side (whatever is comfortable for you).

For the Double Pine Tree Block – cut scraps according to image:

First you will want to create your “tree sections”

Next you will want to assemble the individual tree sections (effectively splitting the block in half):

Finished block measures 6.5” Square

For the two Striped Pine Tree Blocks you will want to start by sewing together 5 strips of fabric measuring 1.5” x 12”

Then using the Tri-Recs ruler or the provided templates – you will want to cut out your tree sections. One will be horizontal stripes, the other will be vertical (simply turn the fabric before cutting):

Following the cutting measurements on the next 2 images for the background and tree trunks:

Sew your sections together and voila! Two scrappy pine trees

Sorry about this next block – it was easier to show you the cutting measurements on a partially assembled block:

(The technique is the same for each section of the tree, I am demonstrating on the center section – the first section is small and it was hard to get good pictures)

With one white strip at a time, place it perpendicularly on your green strip and use your ruler to draw a line from the upper corner of your white fabric to the bottom corner of your green fabric. Do the same on both sides of the green fabric. Your lines should slant down on your white strips in opposite directions (picture flying geese, except these are rectangles not squares).

Next place your white strip on the green strip and sew along the line you drew. Trim to ¼” and press open, repeat with the other white strip. Once trimmed the entire strip should measure 6.5” long.

Sew on your bottom section with the tree trunk and you are done! Block should measure 6.5” square

Layout your 4 blocks in a way that makes you happy and sew them together!

Please let me know if you have any questions at all or if you need more pictures! And thank you Kim for hosting such a fun QAL and allowing me to be a part of it!

I’m linking up to Quilting By the River

Valentine’s Pinwheel Table Runner Tutorials Day 2

7 Comments / bittersweet quilt designs, block tutorials, Fat Quarter Shop, quilt blocks, SewHappyGeek / By Melissa Dunworth

Here are the tutorials for the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th blocks in my Valentine’s Pinwheel Table Runner. The first block can be found here.

You will want to continue using the two 4.5” strips that you cut yesterday.

2nd Pinwheel Block

Make sure that you cut your left and right B sections correctly – cut your first left sections from the left side of the fabric and your right sections from the right side of the fabric. Meaning when you have your strip laid out in front of you – cut 4 pieces starting on the left (which is probably natural for right handed people) and cut 4 pieces from the right hand side of the fabric (a little less natural for us righties).

Sew your first section together, then place the block right side facing down on your cutting mat and create a new A section (see picture).

Following the photo above sew your sections together and voila – block 2 complete.

3rd Pinwheel Block

This block is what happens when you accidently (ok, when I accidently!) cut your block right side facing up instead of facing down!

The cutting is slightly different:

Sew your first section together and this time you will place the block facing up to create a new A section (see picture).

Attach second B section. Make 4 total – follow photo above to layout your block – voila! Block 3 complete!

4th Pinwheel Block – this one is slightly more complicated, but I really love the way it looks:

This time you will need four A sections and eight B sections:

Sew together first two sections, the placing right side facing up with red triangle at the top – create new A section (see picture):

Attach second B section . Make 4 total – follow photo above to layout your block – voila! Block 4 complete!

Cutting for borders and sashing – you will need 4 strips of the red fabric for your sashing

I used a scrap piece of fabric for the backing and also scraps from a larger project for the batting. I decided to hand quilt this project. I pin basted like crazy.

This was the first time I ever hand quilted anything – my hand issues have always kept me leery of doing it for fear of extra pain and swelling. I decided it was finally the time to give it a go (and yes, I did have extra swelling and pain the next day – but it was short lived and the resulting project was so beautiful that it was WORTH IT!). I asked my friend Jenna from SewHappyGeek for some guidance and she oh so graciously offered to do a video tutorial! If you are even the least bit interested in learning this technique – please go check out her video – it is totally worth the 5.5 minutes of your time. She did a wonderful job with it plus you can finally put a voice to the words on the screen!

Come back tomorrow for a quick tutorial on how to do a machine binding!

If you haven’t already – make sure you enter to win the Lazy Angle Ruler and a Layer Cake from Fat Quarter Shop!

NOTE: Don’t forget, I am one of the bloggers who is going to lose Google Friend Connect in March 2012, please take a moment and follow me via Bloglovin’, Facebook, RSS or networked blogs. You are important to me and I want to be able to stay in contact with you! Check my side bar for all the best ways to stay in touch after GFC goes bye bye!

Stocking Block Tutorial

6 Comments / block tutorials, quilt blocks, tutorial, vintage christmas sampler / By Melissa Dunworth

Today I owe a huge thank you to my best friend Lisa. I have known Lisa since we were 11 years old. We lost contact in our early 20’s and found each other again on MySpace in 2007. This past year I got her interested in quilting and she helped me out with this tutorial. I made the stocking block back in July and never took any pictures of how I did it. Last night I sent Lisa a picture of the block with measurements and I talked her through how to make it on the phone and she did a beautiful job – the vintage block is mine and the modern block is hers. Thank you thank you thank you Lisa! You rock!

This is the final block of the Vintage Christmas Sampler Quilt, if you have made it this far, CONGRATULATIONS! As of this post, all my blocks are completed but I have not finished the top. My plan is to border each block alternating between red and green solid and then sew the blocks together to make the top. I am certain this won’t actually happen until some time next year!

Here we go, cutting:

From red cut: two 2″ x 2″ squares, one 1.5″ x 1.5″ square, one 1.5″ x 2.5″ rectangle, two 3.5″ x 2.5″ rectangles, and one 5.5″ x 3.5″ rectangle.

From green cut: one 3.5″ x 2.5″ rectangle

From white cut: two 2″ x 2″ squares, two 1.5″ x 12.5″ rectangles, two 3.5″ x 10.5″ rectangles, and one 3.5″ x 7.5″ rectangle.

NOTE: all seams are 1/4″

Next, using the red and white 2″ squares assemble your Half Square Triangles (HSTs) – trim them down to 1.5″ x 1.5″

Next, assemble toe section:

Next, assemble heel section:

Next, assemble cuff section:

Next, assemble center section of block:

Add side borders:

Add top & bottom borders:

Congratulations! Another finished block! If you are like me and this is your last block then you have finished all the blocks for your quilt!

As soon as I finish the quilt top I will post pictures – this will not be until sometime next year, but I am really excited to get it done. This is the 4th quilt that I have designed and I am really excited about it. I would also love it if you are making this quilt and you want to share you pictures with me!

Happy Sewing!

Indian Mats Block Tutorial

7 Comments / block tutorials, Christmas sampler, quilt blocks, tutorial, vintage christmas sampler / By Melissa Dunworth

First and foremost, I would like to start with an apology. I am sorry for not having this up when I said I would, which was before the end of November. I have been sick for the past few months and I have let a few things slide – this project was one of them. My sincerest apologies to those who have been quilting along with me this whole time. I did not want to say anything here about being sick because this is my happy place, the place where I’m not sick. Ok, enough sick talk – let’s sew!

This is block number 7 from my Vintage Christmas Sampler and it is attributed to Nancy Cabot (I think she must have designed practically every quilt block known to man!). To make this block you will need to download my paper piece template. I am sure there are other ways to do this, but I really wanted to practice paper piecing with simple patterns and this seemed like a good block to do that with.

Please print 4 templates – make sure that the square with the dashes measures 6.5 x 6.5 inches.

This is a picture tutorial, please let me know if you have any questions or if you cannot download the template – I will be happy to email it to you!

Tip: when I paper piece I like to reduce my stitch length to 1.5 – this will make it easier to tear the paper away after trimming the block at the end!

Tear paper away after cutting along dotted line

Sew blocks together using a 1/4″ seam and you are all done!

If you are new to my blog and to my Vintage Christmas Sampler – the rest of the blocks can be found here along with links to all the tutorials. The final tutorial will be posted in the next few days, again I apologize for the delay.

If you haven’t already – make sure you enter the two giveaways I have going on, one from Fat Quarter Shop and one for the SewMamaSew Giveaway Day.

Have a happy day!

Vintage Christmas Sampler – Waterwheel Block

6 Comments / block tutorials, half square triangles, quilt along, quilt blocks, Quilt Patterns, vintage christmas sampler / By Melissa Dunworth

The next block in the Vintage Christmas Sampler is the Waterwheel Block. I saw several variations of this block in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. I drew a few of them out and didn’t like the proportions of the blocks, so I started over and this is the block I ended up with, I hope you like it!

Get the know how after the jump! …

Vintage Christmas Sampler – Waterwheel BlockRead More »