Tag: Free Quilt BOM 2014

Assembling the Evening at the Pond Block

I had posted the instructions for piecing the second block of my block of the month quilt, Round the Year, here
When I left you, this is where we were, 16 templates pieced and ready for assembly, using the master template as a guide.

Evening at the Pond templates ready to be assembled
Evening at the Pond templates ready to be assembled

 

Actually, with this picture, gasping in admiration at what you had put together!

Paper piecing done!
Paper piecing done!

So after you’ve finished admiring your templates, head back to the sewing machine. This will come up really fast, and before you know, your block will be ready!
The order of piecing will be
1. Template A to template I; B to J; C to K….H to P!
Place templates A and I right sides together and push pins to align them. Secure with pins along the seam line and remove the hanging pins.

Pond and flying geese template pinned together
Pond and flying geese template pinned together
Hanging pins removed
Hanging pins removed

Sew all the pairs, AI, BJ, CK…HP. Remove the paper from the seams and the paper pieces that do not have alignment markers.

Press seam line in alternate directions  – as in the corresponding pond template.

And then there were eight!
And then there were eight!

Join these eight segments in pairs to make quarter circles. AI to BJ, CK to DL, EM to FN and GO to HP. If you want you can remove the paper pieces on the pond templates now.

Align the two adjoining segments with pins. I need to be very careful at this stage, as I always end up joining the pairs along the wrong edges – pinning helps prevent that.

Two segments being aligned together with pins
Two segments being aligned together with pins

 

...the hanging pins on the other side
…the hanging pins on the other side

Secure the two sub blocks together with pins and remove the hanging pins. Ready to sew!

Ready to go under the needle
Ready to go under the needle

The quarters are finally ready to be joined to the respective background pieces.

Rainbow against a blue sky!
Rainbow against a blue sky!
The rainbow against a cloudy sky…

The next block is ready to be revealed on the first of the next month! While you get your second block ready, I’ll get my blogpost ready!  Do post pictures of your block on my facebook page Patchwork of My Life!

 

Rainbow Evening at the Pond – Block Two, Dreamcatcher Round the Year, Block of the Month Quilt

Evening at the Pond

This, EVENING AT THE POND, the second block in my Block of the Month quilt ‘Dreamcatcher Round the Year’ , is a favourite of mine! For those of you who came in late, this quilt is being made in two colourways. The first, Dusk is in blues, oranges and yellows of a  brilliant sunset, while the second, Rainbow is a more modern version with rainbow colours set against grey and sky blue.

This particular block went through several reincarnations before acquiring its present form, but that deserves its vey own blogpost!  It was tested for me by Nikhat Syeda Arshia and by Sobana Sundar, who has shared her adventure of testing an earlier version of the block on her blog.

Instructions

 These are instructions for the “Rainbow ” colourway,  including the paper piecing templates, fabric requirement and cutting instructions. These instructions can also be downloaded in a printable .pdf format from the link at the end of this post.

The fabric requirement for the Dusk colourway was posted a few days ago.

The block is paper foundation pieced before being assembled. The finished block size is 18″ square with an inset circle of 15″ diameter.

Fabric Requirement and Cutting Instructions

.

Cut the 2″ X50″ grey strip for the pond into 12 rectangles – 4 strips each of 5″, 4.5″ and 3.5″.

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Take a print out of the template.pdf file at with printer setting at 100% or actual size. You  have the following templates:
  • 8 arc templates numbered I to P for the outer ring of flying geese
  • 8 templates A to H for the inner ‘pond’
  • Template S in 2 pieces S1 and S2 for one quarter of the outside square.

2. Piecing

  • Piece the templates A to H
  • Piece the flying geese templates I to P

3. Assembly

  • Join A to I, B to J, C to K …H to P
  • Join AI to BJ to get quarter circle AIBJ; similarly assemble CKDL, EMFN and GOHP
  • Join the quarter circles to Q, R, S and T respectively to get four quarters of your final block.
  • Assemble the 4 squares; square up the block to 18.5″ – we are done!

Refer to the Master template below as a guide when assembling the paper pieced templates.

You can also use it to try out your own colour schemes; use colour pencils!

I would love to see  pictures of your completed blocks on my facebook page “Patchwork of My Life”  –  a link is on the sidebar!

Downloadable files:

1. Paper piecing template – Rainbow Evening at the Pond , Block Two of  Round the Year Quilt

2 Instructions -Rainbow Evening at the Pond , Block Two of  Round the Year Quilt

BUY PATTERN NOW!

 Please note that the downloadable patterns with paper piecing templates and instruction files for the Dreamcatcher Round the Year quilt blocks are being migrated to my store MadsPatch and will not be available for download for free from 15th November 2020 onwards

Evening at the Pond – Step by Step Piecing Instructions

This post seems to be jinxed! I wrote the whole post, to find that I had overwritten the assembly instructions. Those will follow in another post!

My laptop is back from the service centre with a new hard disk, but I am not able to locate all the pictures! So here are the step by step instructions for piecing the Evening at the Pond block, ( the second block in the Dreamcatcher Round the Year Block of the Month quilt) with the pictures for a few steps missing.

As you may recall, here also the finished block size is 18″ square with a 15″ inset circle. The block is paper foundation pieced before being assembled. This is a really easy block, though you may find piecing the flying geese a bit tedious! I know that I thought the Dahlia block was super easy to piece, not so easy to assemble. This one is really, really easy to assemble, it has no curves anywhere!

So here we go!

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Take print outs of the template.pdf file with your printer settings at 100% or actual size. Cut out the templates, leaving a little margin on all sides. You have the following templates:
  • 8 arc templates numbered I to P for the outer ring of flying geese
  • 8 triangular templates A to H for the inner ‘pond’
  • Template S in 2 pieces S1 and S2 for one quarter of the outside square.
  1. Take a print out of the Instructions File and keep it hand.
  2. Colour code the fabric you plan to use. Follow the instructions to cut the fabric. If your fabric is pre-starched, it gives a nice, crisp, neat finish to your final block!
  3. Pin the cut fabric pieces to each template
    using the colour code as a guide – I always do that or I get confused what goes where!!
  4. Fabric pieces pinned to each template for ease in piecing
  5. Piecing the Pond
  • The templates A, C, E and G are pieced from the outer edge to the centre and the alternate pieces B, D, F and H are pieced from the centre outwards.
  • The adjoining seams facing opposite directions ensures a nice `fit’ when the pieces are finally assembled.
  • Right sides together – ready to piece!
  • Unpin the two fabric pieces to be joined, place them on the wrong side of the template, keeping a seam allowance of ¼” approximately. The remaining two pieces are pinned back to the template so that they don’t get misplaced and mixed up!
  • I chain pieced the templates in alphabetical order, so that my chain looked something like this!
  • Chain piecing the ‘pond’…
  • My fabric pieces are not rectangles like yours will be – this is so that you do not make stupid mistakes like I did! Lesson learnt – Resist the temptation to trim the fabric pieces to size before you sew them!
  • Oops what was that???
  • Also remember to flip over your piece No 2 to ensure that it covers the entire section that it is supposed to! Or you may end up using the services of Jack the Ripper!
  • The perils of not placing fabric pieces correctly 🙁
  • One way to ensure that is to lightly fold the fabric piece to find the centre and do the same for the paper template, and match them when sewing. ( However, this is unlikely to happen to you, because I have made the pieces really long, with a lot of margin of error!
  • Now that all the 8 pond templates have the sections 1 and 2 pieced, we clip apart the templates and head to the ironing table. Trim seam allowance to ¼” if needed. You can just eyeball it and use your scissors to trim the seam – not necessary to use the services of a rotary cutter.
  • Press open piece 2; if your fabric is well starched and crisp, you may just finger press.
  • Seams trimmed to 1/4″ – pressing open the second strip
  • Similarly attach piece 3. Trim seam allowance to ¼” and press open the third piece.
  • Strip 3 sewn and pressed open
  • Attach piece 4, trim seam allowance to ¼” press open. Trim the excess fabric from the sides and our pond pieces are ready! That was really easy, wasn’t it?!
  • Hurrah! Pond pieced!

Do not get confused by this picture! I changed the pattern after I made this block, so your pond templates will add up to an octagon, not a circle!

  1. Piecing the flying geese
  2. The templates I to P will be pieced to make a ring of flying geese. Here chain piecing is not really possible, so this bit of piecing goes a bit slow!
  • Place the first rectangle for the goose (wrong side of fabric touching paper) so that the seam allowance between Goose 1 and Goose 2 extends about a ¼” beyond the seam line, like in the picture below.
  • Hold up the paper against light to ensure correct placement – 1/4″ beyond seam line
  • Place the half square triangle for Piece 2 with the longest side (hypotenuse) aligned to the seam allowance. You can hold it against the light to see that the piece extends approximately ¼” beyond the seam line. You can pin it like I have done. These two pictures show the two sides…
  • Piece 2 is also in order 🙂
    The other side! The triangular sky is placed with the long edge on the seam line
  • Caution : The next few pictures are of a previous version of the block, so please do not get confused by the template numbers or order of piecing.
    Sew on the seam line, extending your seam line to approximately ¼” beyond into the next section.
  • The seam line 1/4″ extends beyond the centre
  • Flip over and trim the excess fabric to leave a seam allowance of ¼” , press open.
  • Trim off excess fabric!
  • Similarly sew the other triangular `sky’ piece, going beyond the centre point, like was done for the previous piece. Now trim the seam allowance to ¼” and press open. The first goose is ready!
  • Piece 3 sewn , ready for trimming and pressing open
  • TIP – Before sewing the sky pieces, do remember to check the placement of the piece so that it covers the respective `sky’ section fully when pressed open. This is especially true of the sky pieces on the outer border of the ring.
    Fold back the paper on the seam line between the just pieced section and the next – that would be the long line of Piece 4. You will need tear a bit of the paper here, to detach the top seam allowance from the paper. No worry!
  • Trim this seam allowance to ¼” on the just pieced portion.
  • Place the rectangle piece for the second goose, right side down on the just pieced section and sew. Press open. Continue to piece as in previous sections.
  • Here is a picture taken by Sobana, who tested the block!
  • Sobana’s arc under construction!
  • And here is a picture of the fully pieced template, trimmed to size
  • One arc done!
  • This is how it looks from the back! You can see how the seams extend into the adjoining section in the centre of the template.
  • Final trimming!
  • And here is the full ring of flying geese made by Sobana! Aren’t they pretty?
  • Ring of flying geese! Love it!

So all our templates are pieced!

Using the master template as a guide, arrange your templates and admire them!

Ready for assembly!

The assembly instructions will be  online soon, while you get cracking on this!

You can download the instructions and templates files here.

1. Paper piecing templates – Evening at the Pond ( Block Two of Round the Year Quilt)

2. Instructions (Dusk version) -Evening at the Pond ( Block Two of Round the Year Quilt)

You can access the pattern for the first block, Dahlia here.

 Please note that the downloadable patterns with paper piecing templates and instruction files for the Dreamcatcher Round the Year quilt blocks are being migrated to my store MadsPatch and will not be available for download for free from 15th November 2020 onwards.

An Evening at the Pond… Block Two of the Dreamcatcher Round the Year Quilt

IMG_0272.JPGThis, the second block in my Block of the Month quilt ‘Dreamcatcher Round the Year’ , is a favourite of mine! For those of you who came in late, this quilt is being made in two colourways. The first, Dusk is in blues, oranges and yellows of a  brilliant sunset, while the second, Rainbow is a more modern version with rainbow colours set against grey and sky blue.

This particular block went through several reincarnations before acquiring its present form, but that deserves its vey own blogpost!  It was tested for me by Nikhat Syeda Arshia and by Sobana Sundar, who has shared her adventure of testing an earlier version of the block here.I am not including any photos in this post to help you along as you construct the block, as I do not have access to them at the moment – they are being extracted from a hard drive which developed “bad sectors”! If you are new to paper piecing, you may like to get your fabric and templates ready and wait for the post with pictures, which should come up in a few days.

But I do have the block pattern, including the paper piecing templates, fabric requirement and cutting instructions, right here… These instructions can also be downloaded in .pdf format from the link at the end of this post.

These are instructions for the “Dusk ” colourway. The fabric requirements for the Rainbow colourway will be shared in a couple of days! Finished Block size: 18″ square with 15″ inset circle The block is paper foundation pieced before being assembled.

Fabric Requirement and Cutting Instructions*

Corrigendum : Read Medium Blue Code 11 as Code 1 in chart above.

When cutting fabric for the background, add a margin of 1/2 ” to 1″ on the outer (straight) edge.

INSTRUCTIONSTake print outs of the .pdf Template file at 100% size. You have the following templates:

  • 8 arc templates numbered I to P for the outer ring of flying geese
  • 8 templates A to H for the inner ‘pond’
  • Template S in 2 pieces S1 and S2 for one quarter of the outside square.
  1. Piecing
  • Piece the templates A to H
  • Piece the flying geese templates I to P
  1. Assembly
  • Join A to I, B to J, C to K …H to P
  • Join AI to BJ to get quarter circle AIBJ; similarly assemble CKDL, EMFN and GOHP
  • Join the quarter circles to Q, R, S and T respectively to get four quarters of your final block.
  • Assemble the 4 squares; square up the block to 18.5″ – we are done!

Refer to the Master template below as a guide when assembling the paper pieced templates.You can also use it to try out your own colour schemes; use colour pencils!

Download files from here:

  1. Block02 Dusk-Evening at Pond Instructions File Revised- Block Two – Dusk – Evening at the Pond
  2. RtY02 Dusk-Evening at the pond Templates- Block Two – Dusk – Evening at the Pond

Buy now!

 Please note that the downloadable patterns with paper piecing templates and instruction files for the Dreamcatcher Round the Year quilt blocks are being migrated to my store MadsPatch and will not be available for download for free from 15th November 2020 onwards.

Dahlia – “Dreamcatcher Dusk Round The Year” Block of the Month Quilt – Block One

 Here it is finally – the pattern for the Dahlia Block, with complete instructions for piecing!

Please note that the downloadable patterns and instruction files for the Dreamcatcher Round the Year quilt blocks are being migrated to my store MadsPatch and will not be available for download for free from 15th November 2020 onwards.

This traditional “DAHLIA” block is the first in the Dreamcatcher Round the Year Quilt; it is paper foundation pieced . We are chain piecing strips to construct the block.

Here are the instructions for piecing the Dahlia.

Finished Block size: 18″ square with 15″ inset circle



Fabric Requirement – given for strip piecing technique. You need more fabric ( an extra strip of each of fabric 2,3, 4,5 and 7 ) if you wish to piece the block in the regular way.

Colour Code  Quantity
Blue 2  2 strips 2.5” x 20”
3  2 strips 2.5” x 20”
4  2 strips 2.5” x 20”
7  1 strip 3.5” x 20”
Yellow 5 1 strip 3.5” x20
1 strip 2” x 20”
2 squares 3.5” x 3.5”
Orange 6  1 strip 2” x 20”2 squares 3.5” x 3.5”
Grey (for square 1  18.5” square
  1. Take print outs of the DAHLIA TEMPLATE PDF File at 100% size ( ‘no scaling’ / `Portrait’ mode setting of printer). You have the following templates:
  • 16 arc templates numbered A to P for piecing the outer circle (ring).
  • 2 templates Q and R for the inner circle
  • Template S in 2 pieces S1 and S2 for one quarter of the outside square.

2.  This Master template  shows how the paper pieced sub-blocks shall be assembled. You can print it from the Instructions file and  try out your own colour schemes; use colour pencils! .  


  1. Piece arc templates A to H
  2. Piece arc templates I to P
  3. Piece the centre halves Q and R.
  4. Moving anti-clockwise from 3 o’clock, join the arcs in adjoining pairs as follows-
  5. H to P, A to I, B to J and so on
  6. Join HP to AI and BJ to CK. Next join HPAI to BJCK to get the top half of the flower
  7. Similarly, join adjoining pairs to get the bottom half of the flower DLEMFNGO
  8. Join the centre top Q to HPAIBJCK and similarly construct the lower half of the Dahlia.
  9. The background – Glue together the two parts of template S along the marked edge. Use the following diagram to cut 4 of these – S, T, U and V from the background fabric

  10. Join S and T to make the top half and U and V to make the bottom half
  11. Set the circle halves into the background fabric.
  12. Join the halves to make the square block!

I plan to set the circles on to the background fabric only once all of them are ready. 

Piecing Instructions

As I mentioned, we use the strip foundation piecing technique to (chain)piece the block.

1. Cut the strips as recommended. Colour code the strips – mark them with a post-it note! Whenever I don’t do that, I end up using the wrong fabric.
For cutting the strips, it is highly recommended ( in fact, essential!) that you pre-starch the fabric. If you do not have access to a readymade spray starch, a good home made option is mixing a liquid stiffener like Revive ( 2capfuls in 100ml) with water in a spray bottle.

071414_1308_DuskRoundTh11.jpg

2.    Cut out all the templates roughly – accuracy not required at this stage.

3.  Make 4 piles : A to H, I to P, Q to R, and S1-S2

4. We first piece A to H. (These are pieced from the centre outwards to the circumference.)

  • Line up the strips top to bottom needed for these in order.
  • Yellow Colour code 5- 2″ strip
  • Blue Code 4 – 2.5″ strip
  • Blue code 3 – 2.5″ strip
  • Blue Code 2- 2.5″ strip
  • Yellow Code 5 – 3.5″ strip

5.   Now we are ready to sew. Lower the stitch length ( 1.5 should be fine)

6.   Place the pile of templates A to H close to hand near the sewing machine. Line up the first 2 strips, right sides together, left edges aligned and strip 1 ( yellow 2″) on top, under the raised presser foot – see the photo.

7.   Slide the paper template A over the fabric, aligning the seam marker line between A1 and A2 approximately ( at least) ¼” from left edge. ( Accurate ¼” seam not necessary, you can err towards a bigger seam!) Bring down the presser foot and sew accurately on line. Do not cut thread, or remove the fabric/ paper.

8.   Now line up Template B under Template A, making sure that the templates do not overlap. Sew on the line between B1 and B2. Line up Template C next…and so on…ensuring you leave about 1/8″ between the paper templates.

9. At the end of this exercise, you have 8 templates A to H lined up and sewn to Strips 1 and 2, like this pic. Carry them to the ironing board.

10. Flip over ( to the unprinted paper side) and press over seam to set it. Open the blue strip and press again.


Note the distance between the paper templates in the pic – it is very important that the templates not be too close to each other.

11. Flip over to the printed paper side …

.. …and cut the strips carefully, along the paper template edges, to separate the templates.

This is how your templates should look now…

12. Now to the cutting mat to trim down your seam to ¼”.
Fold back the paper to reveal the seam and using your ruler and rotary cutter, trim it down to ¼”.

If you are not a perfection freak, it is absolutely okay to just trim the seam with your scissors to approximately ¼”.
Now head back to the sewing machine!

13. We now attach the 3rd strip to these templates. Basically, we shall be doing the same thing that we did when we attached Strip 1 to Strip 2.

So here goes!

  • Queue up your templates again A to H.
  • Place Strip 3 ( right side up) under A2, aligning the edges to the left ¼” beyond the seam line between A2 and A3.

  • Sew on the seamline. Again, do not remove from under machine.
  • Chain piece B, C, D…H as you did for strips 1 and 2.

You end up with this…

…which you carry to the ironing table!

  • Iron , cut to separate the templates and trim the seams to ¼”.


14. Attach strip 4 , iron, cut, trim seams.

15. The final yellow strip at the outer edge is 3.5″ wide. This is attached in the same way…

…cut apart, seams trimmed. Now trim the outer edges roughly.
Your templates A to H are pieced!

16.  The next step will be piecing templates I to P.

Here, we start piecing from the outer edge of the circle and go towards the centre.
Get your fabric strips together and label them, in the following order –

Blue Code 7 -3.5″ (I have used this delicious mottled fabric instead of the deep blue shown in the pattern)

Blue Code 4 -2.5″

Blue Code 3 – 2.5″

Blue Code 2 – 2.5″

Orange Code 6 – 2″

17. Now to begin piecing this second set of templates! Just to remind you, as you begin, the order top to bottom is –

  1. Paper template I (printed side up)
  2. Strip 1 ( Code 7) right side down under I1
  3. Strip 2 (Code 4) right side up

The edges of Strips 1 and 2 are aligned approximately ¼” beyond the seam line 1.
Sew on Seam line 1. Without taking fabric and template off the machine, chain piece all the templates as shown in pic above. Follow instructions above to piece the templates, ironing, cutting, trimming seams at each stage.

Till here we are, almost at the end of our piecing !

.

18. Attach the last strip, iron, and cut apart the templates. Trim seams.

19.  Trim the fabric on the edges of the templates roughly. Refer to the Master Template and lay out your pieced templates (alternating the two lots) and admire them!

20. Piecing the centre.

Cut the 2 orange and 2 yellow squares diagonally. Piece using the templates Q and R.

In my original pattern, I had pieced the centre with 16 segments , but have revised it to 8 segments, as the 16- spoked centre became too bulky to handle.

Stand back and whoop with delight… you did it! That was simple, was it not? See, I told you so! Please do not hesitate to ask me if you get stuck at any stage…
Time  to sit back and relax …till we are ready to assemble these.

 Please note that the downloadable patterns and instruction files for the Dreamcatcher Round the Year quilt blocks are being migrated to my online store MadsPatch.company.site and will not be available for download for free from 15th November 2020 onwards.

BUY PATTERN & ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS NOW!