Quilts in the Park - weather permitting
We would love to see many of you for an in person event. Check back here by noon on the 16th to see if it has been cancelled due to rain.
Vincent Massey Park, zone QRST (ish)
Saturday Oct 23rd at 1:00 pm (rescheduled from Oct 16th due to rain)
bring: Quilts, a lawn chair, a mask, a credit card to pay for parking ($1 per half hour)
Welcome back to another Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild season!
And it's Block of the Month/Block Lotto time! I'm Leslie Stobbart and I'm back as your Block of the Month coordinator again this year. I'm being joined by Theresa Cody, who has also volunteered to join me this year. I'll be setting the design for the September > October Block, and then Theresa will take reigns for the October > November design. Thank you, Theresa!
I thought I'd start our own OMQG tradition of having the first Block of the year follow a Halloween/Fall theme. Because who doesn't want to have help making their own Fall-themed quilt? Last year we did spooky houses, and this year, it's pumpkins!
I've adapted this tutorial from one I found on Craftsy. I made the dimensions slightly larger than the Craftsy instructions, and also expanded the instructions to allow for a single-fabric pumpkin, a stripey pumpkin, or a patchwork pumpkin. I think a mix of all three designs in one quilt will look very cool!
Colours:
For the pumpkins, you can go with standard orange fabric, or you can mix it up with white fabric. Solids or prints, whatever speaks to you!
For the background, let's stick with black(ish) fabric choices. Feel free to choose either solids or prints for these, too.
You'll also need a bit of brown fabric for the stem, and green fabric for the leaf on each pumpkin.
For a Single-Fabric Pumpkin:
- 1 square of pumpkin fabric, cut to 6.5" x 6.5"
- 1 brown 1.5" x 1.5" square (this will be the stem of the pumpkin)
- 1 green strip, cut to 1.5" x 3" (this will be the leaf)
For a Stripey Pumpkin:
- 3 pumpkin strips cut to 2.5" x 6.5"
- 1 brown 1.5" x 1.5" square (this will be the stem of the pumpkin)
- 1 green strip, cut to 1.5" x 3" (this will be the leaf)
For a Patchwork Pumpkin:
- 9 squares of pumpkin fabric cut to 2.5" x 2.5"
- 1 brown 1.5" x 1.5" square (this will be the stem of the pumpkin)
- 1 green strip, cut to 1.5" x 3" (this will be the leaf)
Background Fabric:
These pieces are the same for all three variations.
- 2 strips cut to 1.5" x 7.5"
- 2 strips cut to 1.5" x 8.5"
- 1 strip cut to 1.5" x 3"
- 6 squares, cut to 1.5" x 1.5"
1. Sew either the pumpkin strips together, or the patchwork squares together into a nine-patch, as shown in the photo below. If you are making a single-fabric/non-scrappy pumpkin, you get to skip this step.
2. Mark and sew the corners. Place a background square on each corner of the 6.5" pumpkin piece, right sides together. To shape the pumpkin, mark each square with a diagonal line from corner to corner. Sew on these lines.
3. Trim the corners. Using a ruler and rotary cutter, trim the corners ¼” from the sewn line. Press the corners away from the pumpkin fabric.
4. Make the leaf. Place the remaining two background squares on top of the green strip. Mark these from corner to corner as well, then sew on the lines, trim and press the corner HSTs out.
Sew the pieces together, then press both seams in toward the brown square.
6. Attach the stem to the pumpkin. Sew the stem and leaf row to the top of the orange strips. Press the seams away from the pumpkin.
7. Finish the block. Sew the 1.5” x 7.5" background strips on either side of the pumpkin block. Press the seams toward the border strips.
Sew the 1.5" x 8.5" background strips to the top and bottom of the pumpkin block. Press the seams toward the background strips to finish the block.
This month's block of the month is a 12.5" wonky star block. This is a fairly simple 9-patch composition that looks pretty great in a finished quilt, if I do say so myself.
I made 12 of these blocks earlier in the month to bump my Roosting Round Robin quilt top (was that from 2019? More like 1919! Yeesh!) from a throw size to a twin size. The quilt top needed to be 24 inches longer, so a row of six of these wonky stars at the top and bottom of the quilt was just the ticket.
So let's get to it!
All seam allowances are 1/4"
Unfinished block size is 12.5" x 12.5" - this will give us 12" x 12" blocks in the finished quilt.
Colour Choices:
The overall concept is to combine any coloured fabric you like (prints or solids, whatever works) with a light/low-volume fabric (such as white, cream, light grey, light prints, light solids, etc.) for each block. Just pick two contrasting fabrics that make you happy and you're all set!
To add a bit of interest, you can choose to use your coloured fabric as the background, with a low-volume star, or to use the coloured fabric for your star and keep the lighter fabric for your background.
It's up to you! I tried a couple of each combination, and I think a mix of the two options is going to make for a cool effect in a quilt!
Cutting Instructions:
Background Fabric:
Cut 8 squares @ 4.5" x 4.5"
Star fabric:
Cut 5 squares @ 4.5" x 4.5"
Sewing Instructions:
This block starts with making the star-points:
Cut 4 of your star squares diagonally from one corner to the other to create 8 half-square triangles. (The fifth star square doesn't get cut in half, as this will be the middle of your star.)
Lay one of the triangles RST on top of one of your background squares, so that the raw edge of the long side goes diagonally across the top right corner of the background square.
As you can see below, the long edge of the triangle should span from top of the background square to the right side of the square. Ensure as well that the top point of your triangle falls somewhere left of the centre-line of your background square.
Note that the placement of your triangles may take a bit of practice/eye-balling, as you want to ensure that they aren't too wonky; once each triangle is sewn in place, you should be able to press it up and it will completely cover the corner of your background square.
Sew the first star-point triangle onto four of your background blocks.
Trim the seam allowance of the background corner and then press each point out.
Then repeat this same step for the top left corner of each of these squares.
Your four star-point pieces should now look like this (or thereabouts - it's supposed to look a bit off!):
Use a ruler and the bottom corners of your background block as a guide and square up each piece to be 4.5" x 4.5".
With all four star-points blocks complete, you're ready to assemble the 9-patch into your star.
Arrange all nine squares as shown below and sew together.
Tip: Nesting your seams is going to make it very easy to line up your three rows and achieve a great finish.
To do this, press the seams of your top and bottom rows away from each other (this is pressing out), and then press the seams of your middle row towards each other (this is pressing in). When you attach the top and bottom row to your middle section, your nested seams should make it quite easy to line everything up and get really nice corners.
Press your finished block and you're done!
Reminder:
You can make as many or as few blocks as you like for the June Block of the Month draw. The more the merrier!
Just send me an email or post a photo to Instagram with the hashtag #ottmqgBOM before our June meeting, and I'll enter you into our last draw of the year! Have a great month, everyone!
