Greetings! With November as family stories month and the holiday is coming on for
December, where do you celebrate Hanukkah, Quanza, Christmas or any of the other religious holidays this time of year I thought it was appropriate this week for me to start out making the memory block. This is a relatively easy block to make, it has got a lot of pieces but the thing that sets it apart is that it has got a big piece in the center so that people can sign their names or send a message to the person who is going to receive the quilt.
This is Penny Holgren from QuiltBlockLibrary.com. I am ready to get started making this block, I hope you are too. I will meet you at the sewing machine.
All the pieces are laid out on my board which I keep right next to my sewing machine. And they are all pretty much ready to sew. So basically this is just half square triangles, squares and quarter square triangles and then of course the rectangular piece in the center. So the first thing I am going to do is start with my half square triangles and I am going to just put them right sides together and so all of the half square triangles together first and then lay them back on my board.
Now that I have the half square triangles sewn together, I am putting them back on my board and I am going to check them with the pattern just to be sure that they are all in the same, in the right place and then I am going to sew these little corner patches together and the way I am going to do that is just put them right sides together and then sew them. Now I am going to chain sew all of these and keep the two patches together so that I will be able to sew those together to complete these patches together to complete this patches together to complete these patches in the corner. Now each of the corner patches just needs to be sown together like that and so I am just going to fold those down and sow them together and then the quarter patches are going to be all finished.
The quarter patches that have the half square triangles are all down and now it is time to tackle the little quarter square triangles and I am going to chain sew those and start by folding the right sides together and do each little quarter patch, quarter square triangle patch at the same time so I will chain stitch down. Now we will finish the little quarter square patches by folding them, right sides together and stitching across.
I guess you can tell that I have not pressed this other than just finger press and I typically do not do that until after I have finished putting the block together so that is why these things are kind of flying up. Now the next thing I am going to do is take a look at this block and figure out how I am going to put all these pieces together. So I know that I cannot sew straight down here because this is going to be one block and this center piece extends across several of the patches. So what makes the most sense is to do it in thirds but not equal thirds. So I am going to sew these two patches together and these two and then I am going to attach the top row, I will attach the center row and the bottom row. So the first thing I am going to do is put these right sides together and sew those two pairs of patches together.
That is done so now I am just going to sew these two and these two together. Now add the corner patches on to the top row and the bottom row. We are getting close, we have got the top row done, the bottom row done and now we just have to get the center row done so we will just fold those over, right sides together and stitch there and stitch there and then we will be ready to put the whole block together.
Okay, I have the three sections finished now and you can start with either the top or the bottom but the idea is to sew the center section on to the top and then attach the bottom on to those two pieces. So I am going to start by folding up the center section and attaching the top one in the center. The last scene in this block, we are going to fold up the bottom and stitch it all together.
Our memory block is all finished and ready to be sown into a larger quilt or you could just frame this, sign it and give it to a friend. I hope you enjoyed memory month, whether you knew it or not during the month of November and I certainly hope you enjoy your holidays during December. We will have more blocks to show you during December, show you how to sew them together.
In addition, you might want to visit how-toquilt.com, that is how-to-quilt.com because we have got a special deal on some Christmas stories and twelve Christmas star block patterns, so you might check that out. In the meantime, this is Penny Holgren signing off from QuiltBlockLibrary.com. Peaceful piecing!
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