Block #4 - Celebrating Lucy T. Pettway
This month my inspiration comes from a quilt called “Snowball” by Lucy T. Pettway, who made quilts for seven decades. Snowball is made up of red and white quarter circle blocks, assembled to give the illusion of a circle in a square. For our block lotto, I’m changing up the block construction to a hand appliqued squircle - a cross between a square and a circle - and maintaining Lucy’s vibrant red and white palette. The block finishes at 5” square.
Fabric requirements
Red fabric - solid, or tone on tone, or small scale red print
White fabric - solid, or tone on tone
You will also need the following
Fabric scissors
Pins (regular or applique)
Needle and thread in contrasting colour for basting
Seam gauge
Needle (milliner’s or applique)
Thread that matches squircle for the needle turn applique
Note: If you are new to needle turn applique (or you would like a refresher), here is a link to an excellent how to video by guild member Jenn McMillan.
Another good resource is the book “Savor Each Stitch” by Carolyn Friedlander. The following instructions are based on the above resources
Cutting
1 - 5.5”x5.5” background fabric, either red or white
1 - 4”x4” squircle fabric in whichever colour you didn’t use for the background
To make the block:
To cut the squircle, use sharp fabric scissors to round the corners of the 4” square squircle fabric.
Centre the squircle on the background square and pin in place.
Use a contrasting thread to baste the squircle to the background square ¼” from the raw edge (use seam gauge for accuracy). Remove pins as you baste.
Thread the applique (or milliner’s) needle with thread that matches the squircle fabric, knotting one end.
Using the tip of your needle (or your fingers) fold raw edge of squircle under to meet basting, creating a ⅛” turn-under allowance.
Bring the needle up from the back of the background block through all layers close to the folded edge.
Direct needle down through background fabric at folded applique edge, and back up through squircle ⅛” from previous stitch.
Continue around the squircle until all edges are folded under and stitched down. Knot thread on wrong side of block.
Remove the basting thread and press.
You are done! The block should measure 5.5” square.
