Sevenoaks Street Quilts: Cloud 9 New Block Blog Hop

Tuesday, 13 September 2016

Cloud 9 New Block Blog Hop

Hello, I’m Sue and welcome to my stop on the Cloud 9 New Block Blog Hop. If this is your first visit please feel free to look around.

This is the block. It's 12" square finished.

I adapted it from a snowflake design on the pyjamas I was wearing on the night the chance of joining this hop was offered to the 2016 New Quilt Bloggers Facebook group. Just as well inspiration struck so early otherwise I may have had a sleepless night or 30…

This is my first ever tutorial, hope it’s clear. If not, let me know, I’ll treat it as constructive criticism, I promise.

SNOWFLAKE SWIRL BLOCK

This block construction is a hybrid between regular piecing and paper foundation piecing. Really, it is mostly a guide to keep everything lined up and if you’ve never done paper piecing before it is a super easy way to start. To make this block you’ll need 4 copies of the piecing template here (please excuse the fact that it is hand-drawn, I couldn't get the circular effect without drawing it). Print it off with page scaling on your printer settings at NONE.

I’ve been generous with the cutting. I like plenty of room to manoeuvre with this technique.

I’ll be pressing all seams as I go, you have my permission to do what you usually do in regards to pressing.

When paper piecing use a smaller stitch length than usual to make it easier to remove the paper at the end. I set mine at 1.6.

If you have never tried foundation piecing there are many tutorials available on the web in the format of your choice.

CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS

Cut 4 x 7 ½” squares from the background fabric (Shadow), then cut on the diagonal to yield 8 HSTs.

BLOCK A

Cut a 8 ½” x 5 ½" piece light blue fabric (Sky)

Cut a 8 ½” x 1” piece dark blue fabric (Amazon)

Cut a 8 ½” x ¾ ” and a 8 ½” x 4” piece background fabric (Shadow)

BLOCK B

Cut a 4 ½” x 5 ½” piece lilac fabric (Lilac)

Cut a 4 ½” x 1” piece purple fabric (Iris)

Cut a 4 ½” x ¾ ” and a 4 ½” x 2” piece background fabric (Shadow)

BLOCK C

Cut a 2 ½” x 10” piece lilac fabric (Lilac)

Cut 2 x 2 ½” x 1” pieces purple fabric (Iris)

Cut 2 x 2 ½” x ¾ ” and 2 x 2 ½” x 2” piece grey fabric (Shadow)

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

We’re going to start by making the snowflake arms. Block A makes up the diagonal arms and Blocks B and C make up the cross bar arms.

NOTE: you will need to use a scant ¼” seam allowance when piecing the arms

BLOCK A

Sew the 8 ½” x 4"piece background fabric to the 8 ½” x 1” piece dark blue fabric and the 8 ½” x 5 ½" piece light blue fabric to the 8 ½” x ¾” piece background fabric. Sew the two sections together (see diagram below). Trim the side edges if required to tidy it up then cut into 4 x approximately 2” strips.

BLOCK B

Sew the 4 ½” x 2” piece background fabric to the 4 ½” x 10” piece purple fabric and the 4 ½” x 5 ½” piece lilac fabric to the 4 ½” x ¾” piece background fabric. Sew the two sections together (see photo below). Trim the side edges if required to tidy it up then cut into 2 x approximately 2” strips

BLOCK C

Sew the 2 ½” x ¾” pieces background fabric to either end of the 2 ½” x 10” piece lilac fabric and the 2 ½” x 1” pieces purple fabric to the 2 ½” x 2” pieces background fabric. Sew the three sections together (see photo below). Trim the side edges if required to tidy it up.

TEMPLATE SECTIONS

Lay a hst on the template, lining the diagonal edge from corner to corner.

Lay a Block A strip along the diagonal edge lining up the marks on the template with the seams along the strips. It doesn’t have to be accurate, they are a guide to create a circular effect. Stitch along the seam line and press. Fold the template back along the second seam line and trim a ¼” from the edge of the paper.

Line the second hst piece with the edge of the strip and stitch along the seam line. Press and trim the block to the edge of the template.

PUTTING THE BLOCK TOGETHER

Lay the 4 sections out so the arms are swirling in a circular kind of way

Stitch a Block B strip to two of the templates (one from the top, one from the bottom) using the marks as a guide to line the seams on the strip up. Again they’re more of a suggestion than an order. Press and trim the top and bottom edges then READ THE NEXT SECTION CAREFULLY. Trim the strip ½” from the edge of the template, yes that is half an inch from the template edge not the seam line.

Line the other template sections up aligning the square edges and stitch along the seam line

Stitch the Block C strip to the edge of one of your pieced sections, using the marks as a guide. Press and trim the edges, then once again trim the strip ½” from the edge of the template. Line the two sections up and stitch along the seam line. Press and trim.

Remove the paper and admire

At this point I would like to say thankyou to Cloud 9 for giving us the opportunity to work with their fabrics and to hosts Yvonne, Cheryl and Stephanie for organising the hop.

Today’s section of the hop is being hosted by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs. There is a big list of bloggers to visit today with no shortage of talent. Check them out. And wait there's more! See the links for yesterday's stage of the hop here and tomorrow's here.