Monday, April 3, 2017

Freefall Quilt Along Step 2 Construction of 8 Leaf Blocks

Welcome back!  We are ready to sew, right?  This week we are making the eight leaf blocks that float on the shadow leaf block.  Does that sound confusing or what?  Not to worry, this first step is easy-peasy.  You need your Ziploc baggie of leaf pieces that float on the Shadow Leaf and your stack of pieces that you cut in Step 1 for the Shadow Leaf.  Here's what we are making:

My Shadow Leaf is green and these are the eight prints I am floating on it.

Construction

* Note that the Shadow Leaf fabric, green in my case, will be referred to as background fabric in this section to avoid confusion between leaf and shadow leaf terms!

1.  You are going to piece the leaf points for all eight leaves following the Paper-Piecing Without Sewing Through the Paper tutorial.  Take out ten of the eleven 2 3/4 x 3 3/4" shadow leaf rectangles, and cut as per the tutorial.  You will have:
  • eight sets of side triangles, 16 total
  • two sets of side triangles extra that you will use for a later set of leaves
  • one 2 3/4 x 3 3/4" rectangle left over.  **Do not cut it yet but set it aside with the extra side triangles for later. 
Follow the tutorial now to make 8 leaf points.

2.  Make the HSTs.  Draw a line from corner to corner on the wrong side of three of the 2.5" leaf fabric squares.  I like to use my Hera marker for this step.  Stitch 1/4" on either side of that marked line and then cut apart on the marked line.

However, for small squares like this, if you have an extension table for your machine with registration marks on it, as I do, you may not have to mark!
Repeat with the other two pairs of 2.5" squares to make 6 HSTs.  Press four to the background fabric and two to the leaf fabric, or all open, whatever you prefer.  Square to 2".
**You may want to check out this tutorial I wrote on how to trim two HSTs at the same time.  You could have two sets of HSTs trimmed in the time it takes to trim one!

Assemble the leaf block

Lay out the pieces for the block as shown below:

1.  Sew the top pair of HSTs (the ones that are above the 3.5" square of leaf fabric) together.  Press open.  Next sew one HST to each of the three rectangles, orienting them as per the layout photo. Press the two units with the background fabric rectangle to the background rectangle, and to the HST on the unit with the leaf fabric rectangle.  Finally sew the sixth HST to the 2" square.  Press to the 2" square.  This is what you will have:


2.  Now piece the top section and bottom section.  Sew the pair of HSTs to the 3.5" square of leaf fabric.   Sew the leaf point to the 2" square unit.  Sew the two rectangle units to the right of the 3.5" background square.

3.  Then sew the top three sections together.  Sew the bottom two sections together.  Finally, sew the top to the bottom section.  Press.  Square to 8".  Make 8 of these altogether.

Remember if you have any questions, leave me a comment below or shoot me an email (click the profile on my sidebar) and I will answer you.  Happy sewing, and thank you SEW much for joining me.  Thank you for your patience with me in taking longer to respond to comments over the past and next several days while we are settling into our new home.

A copy of this post is downloadable in PDF format in my Crafsty store. (affiliate link) 

How about a quick little peek at some of my fabric sponsors' wares?
Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is in Toronto, Ontario.  They are offering a $25 gift certificate.  They have monthly deals, a Canada's birthday BOM, and lots worth checking out.
Needle & Foot is in Grass Valley, California.  The youngest shop of the three here, but a terrific selection of fabrics awaits you, and custom-made articles as well.  Bernie is offering 6 fat quarters OR 3 half-yard cuts.
Fat Quarter Shop is in Manchaca, Texas.  One of their most popular features is the 24-hour flash sale, but their QAL and BOM and featured quilt patterns have me visiting them on pretty much a daily basis! They are offering a $25 gift certificate.

Hope you will support these online shops who are so supportive of activities in QBL!

There are several pattern designers sponsoring the Freefall QAL, more on them next time.  You can check them out in the Intro post by clicking the Freefall Quilt Along tab at the top of the blog.  All posts are there as is the schedule.  Next Monday, April 10, the second linkup will open and remain open for a week to give you plenty of time to complete your 8 blocks. Happy sewing! Remember to post on Instagram as well, and use the hashtag freefallqal so we can find you!

Linking up:
Cooking Up Quilts
Patchwork Times

13 comments:

  1. I am looking forward to starting to sew this together!

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  2. Looks great and I'm looking forward to making these

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  3. We are getting together on the weekend to get started on this!

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  4. Excellent instructions! So exciting! XO

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  5. The blocks are coming together nicely, great design!

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  6. Very pretty blocks. That green really pops the other colors.

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  7. Got my 8 leaf blocks made tonight they turned out great and I drafted my own template per your instructions. Thank you!

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    1. That is awesome to hear Christine, thank you! Hope you will link up your blocks on Monday or on Instagram. You are a no-reply so I do hope you will see this reply.

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  8. Yes! I'm awake! No I didn't tune out while reading this! Lol ;p ~your everloving non-quilter sister ❤

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  9. Eeek. This is coming along so quickly. I think it will be the project to get me back on that quilting horse. I think I totally missed the first linkup. I'll catch up though!

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