Category Archives: Sewing tips

18 Mar

Moda BOM March - blocks 15-18

Hello and welcome to March’s blocks. Hope you find the hints and tips useful and that you are cracking on with the pattern.

Block 15

Cut as per pattern

Now layout all triangles, so you have four pairs of A&B, four of C&B and four of A&C. For speed I chain pieced all these triangles ready for pressing. Press A&C towards orange. Trim all the dog ears.

I went off piste here and didn’t follow the pattern. So you can either choose to follow me doing the center block or do each row at a time as the pattern would show (if I’d have not ploughed ahead without thinking).

I took the four centre blocks and laid out as per pattern then sewed the two sets together. Press opposite seams, then sew together down down centre and press this seam open.

With remaining HST press so the seam go towards peach ones and then seam towards Caribbean on the orange ones. Trim dog ears. Now pair up an Orange with a peach and seams should nest together. Sew down middle and press towards orange.

Take two of these blocks and sew them to either side of first centre block. (if you followed me). Then press towards centre block.

Then attach D to either end of the remaining two pairs and press towards the Caribbean.

Now sew these strips to them block, press and you’re done.

Block 16

From the FQ of Garnet, cut the 13.25″ square as per the pattern instructions (the F8 is for block 17).

Follow the rest of the pattern cutting instructions.

You will have some triangles that will be surplus in this pattern, so from the two larger squares A & C, you will only be using one of the triangles.

The triangles on the left are what will make up the block, on the right are surplus.

Place one D on top of C so the bottom and left edge lines up as in the picture. There I’ll be a bit of overhang at the top. Sew and press.

Follow the same process for blocks B & A.

Now repeat on the right hand side. Trim the dog ears and the block should measure 6.5″ x 12″.

Repeat with B and A for the top half of the block.

Then attach the latter block to the top of the first as per the pattern layout and press.

Hey presto, nice easy block.

Block 17

Use the remainder of FQ & F8 Garnet and part of the Red from block 16 to cut required blocks you need along with the White, Woodrose and Blush Pink.

As with block 16 you will have some spare triangles once cut. From each of the bigger squares you will only be using two of the four triangles.

For speed here I chain pieced all my flying geese, so to begin I placed in order. Following the pattern I took a B and added it to the left hand side of A and as with our other blocks make sure the bottom line and left hand side match up, with a little overhang at the top centre point.

Remember as you go you will have two of each flying geese as we have two identical columns. Then I added D to C, F to E and H to G. Always adding this first one to the left hand side so they all lay the same way.

Press the seams towards the smaller corner triangles with the exception of the white which I pressed in to the Garnet.

Now add the other corner on the right in the same manner, press and trim the dog ears.

Next following the pattern attach your geese together to form the two columns. So they will sit together press one lot of seams up and the other down.

Finally sew the two columns together and another block done.

Here you see those pesky leftover triangles sent to confuse us! I’m thinking there’s lots we could make with all this left over fabrics and some of these fairly big triangles.

Block 18

Cut as per the pattern nothing unusual to note here.

Add C to left side of B and chain piece four lots, press to red and trim the dog ears. Add the right side in the same way. The block will measure 3.5″ x 6.5″.

Next place onto remaining four C onto D and sew the long edge, press to red and trim. These will measure 3.5″ square.

Now add 2 of the flying geese to the opposite sides of A. Press towards A.

The with remaining two geese add the HST to either end as in the diagram and press towards the HST corner block.

Now add these strips to top and bottom of block press and your done.

Sorry picture of the final block to follow, but rest assured it looked just like the diagram.

We have another tutorial to follow with a recap of some older blocks and constructing Section B of the quilt top.

Hope you’re all doing okay. Some of you are powering ahead and look to be doing really well. So keep going it’s going to be worth it.

19 Jan

Moda BOM Blocks 9-11

Hello! As promised here are our handy tips for blocks 9-11 for those of you participating in our Moda Building Blocks BOM.

Firstly, as always, once I have cut the required fabrics as per each block pattern I lay out the block.

Block 9 layout

For some bizarre reason I really struggled with how I was going to sew the corners on this block! In my mind and please don’t ask me why, I only had one white triangle per corner not two, it wasn’t until I laid the block out and saw that there were two white triangles per corner did the penny drop!

Corner layout!

Once you have sewn each of the four corners it is time to sew your rows together. As you would with any quilt block piece left to right making sure all your seams and points match up where necessary.

top row pieced

Once all three rows in the block are pieced and pressed well you can go ahead and sew the rows together to complete your block!

block 9 finished!

Once I had gotten over the ridiculous non-existent hurdle with the corners of this block I found it came together easily!

Now we’ll look at Block 10 which I’ve got to admit is my favourite of this months blocks! Again once all the required pieces have been cut, and please don’t forget to use a spray starch like Best Press or Flatter to help your fabrics maintain their shape and be crease free, layout the block.

Block 10 layout

Even though the layout here is not neat I can still see all the different elements that make up the block which in turn makes it easier to sew in a practical order.

Block 10 top row

The top row is made up of three elements that were simple enough to sew, the corners are very similar to block 9. The flying geese section in the middle is easy but I do have a couple of tips to help you on your way!

Instead of pinning all the bias cut triangles in these blocks I’ve been using a dab of my Sewline Glue Pen to secure them together. I worry that the use of pins will distort and stretch the fabric (because they are cut on the bias) and this will throw the block size out.

Fying Geese

Here you can see how I have lined the triangles up to sew them. The overlap of fabric between the two triangles needs to be at the centre point of the peach fabric, this ensures that when you have sewn the other triangle on at the opposite side the point is sharp in the middle. I used a dab of glue to hold the triangles in place along the edge I would be sewing.

Once I had pieced the top and bottom rows which are the same, I tackled the centre section of the block.

layout of block centre

In order to line the triangles up correctly on each side of the square I found the centre point of the side of the square and of the triangle and made a crease on each which I then lined up. Again I secured the two pieces with a dab of glue from my Sewline pen.

match up the creases before sewing!

I repeated this process until all four white triangles had been attached to the four sides of the square. I used the same method of finding and aligning the centres when I sewed on the outer triangles too.

block 10 complete

I love the colours in this block, they really pop!

Next up is Block 11 which is easily pieced compared to blocks 9 and 10! You’re simply sewing the strips of fabric together as the pattern indicates. Sew the 3 longer strips together of the centre section first and then sew the shorter strips into pairs, making sure the two shades of yellow are in the correct order as per the pattern!

block 11 pieced

The only tip I have for this part is to save you some maths!! The shorter strips need to be sewn 4″ in from the edge at the top and bottom to give the block as above. This is now ready for you to cut.

**** final part of instructions will be added as soon as I have got the photos edited!***

7 Jan

Moda BOM

Hi and welcome to only the second edition to our Moda BOM blog posts. Firstly let me apologise for not keeping up to the posts as we have posted out the monthly blocks. I aiming to get back on track for you as soon as possible.

In the meantime the lovely Jules (aka @Juleskerry_s) stepped in to give us a run down on the latest block she made with some helpful guidance for us all.

Without further ado over to Jules -

I would like to talk a little about Kona solids before I start. These are beautiful fabrics and they make fabulous quilts. The colours are stunning. The fabrics are a little heavier than what you may be used to. They tend to frey and once they are cut on the bias (diagonally) they stretch very easily. Once I have my pieces cut out, I handle them as little as possible.

I use a quilting needle for my machine, a size 75, as these needles have a sharper point (the universal needles have a more rounded point). These needles go through the fabric much easier.

I use a 1/4 inch foot with guide, flatter when pressing (not ironing-this stretches the material), this really gets those creases out. I press one colour at a time, cut it and put it to one side, then go through all the colours to make the block. I also use Aurifil threads.

I am starting with block 8 as I have photographs to show how I
assembled the blocks. I didn’t take photos of the other blocks but I’m hoping this will show you how to construct them using the pattern.

Cut out all your fabrics using the Block cutting guide at the bottom of the pattern. Where you have a square to cut diagonally, pick those pieces up carefully not to stretch them, and then put them to one side. When you cut a square diagonally twice, place the square on point, cut top to bottom and carefully pick the ruler up and cut right to left. This stops you handling the fabric too much.

When you have all your pieces cut out, place the pieces on your mat to match the picture.

Stand back and check theses are correct. If you are not sewing them straight away put your ruler on top so they can’t be moved. (I use my big 20″ square ruler). Pick pieces up, stitch and put them back down in the same place, this way they won’t get stitched the wrong way.

Making up your flying geese using one B and two C pieces. Match your first side of C with B, the top will be slightly over, this is okay.

Stitch a 1/4″ seam, press seam to set the press over to the dark side and trim.

Line the other C on the opposite side, stitch and repeat.

Do this with the remaining B & C blocks to give you 16 flying geese.

To prepare to attach D piece to your flying geese, fold in half one flying geese unit, pressing with your finger, this will show when opened.

Repeat with D piece.

Lay this on top of the flying geese unit, matching up the creases, sew in place. Set the seam then press open and trim.

Once you have the four flying geese unit together with the D piece on top we need to attach the E piece (orange triangle). See pic for placing.

Stitch, then attach the other triangle E to the other side. Repeat with one other set of four geese & D.

The centre of the block is one centre square A, two lots of four flying geese and two D’s.

Joining the sides to the centre, butt your seams together (see pic) put a pin in to secure. When sewing remove pin, don’t sew over the top it.

And there you have your final block

I’d just like to say thanks again to Jules.

We will be working hard to put up pointers and tips for the remaining blocks and get these posts up to date for you all. We’d love to have a finished quilt top at the end of the year and see yours too.

So here are the other BLOCKS from Jules with posts to follow…

Block 2

Block 3

Block 4

Block 5

Block 6