Wednesday, January 21, 2009

B-5

This block is a combination of reverse applique and piecing. Because I've covered these techniques in previous posts, I'm not going to go into too much detail here.

Cut four 3" squares out of your background fabric.
Cut four 3" squares out of your main fabric.
(These are cut larger than they need to be but we'll trim them down later.)
Print or trace the block diagram onto the dull side of freezer paper and cut out the four square shapes. Cut out the insides of the diamonds. Because these shapes are so small sharp-pointed scissors come in very handy here.
Iron the freezer paper squares onto the right side of the main fabric squares, centering them.
Cut the diamond shapes out of the fabric, leaving a small seam allowance. Because the shape is so small the seam allowance will have to be small too. Clip the corners almost to the freezer paper's edge. I prefer not to clip them too much to start with and then clip them as I get to them when I'm sewing.

Place your main fabric square on top of your background square and baste the layers together, being careful not to baste into the seam allowance where you'll want to turn the fabric under when you applique.
Using the reverse applique method described in previous blocks, applique the diamond.
Repeat this for all four fabric squares.

Leaving the freezer paper on to help with centering, trim the squares to 2".
Remove the freezer paper and press.
Trim away the bulk of the background fabric on the back of each square. (I forgot to take a photo when I did this, but this one shows it,)


Cut the following out of your background fabric:
Two 1"x2" strips
Two 1"x4" strips
Two 1"x4.5" strips
One 1"x5" strip

Using the 1"x2" strips, sew the squares together in pairs as follows. Press.

Using one of the 1"x4" strips sew the resulting rectangles together. Press.

Attach the other 1"x4" strip to the top of the resulting square. Press.

Following the block diagram and going counter clockwise, attach the remaining strips around the edge in the following sequence, pressing the seams after each strip:
1"x4.5", 1"x4.5", 1"x5"

Easy peasy!

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