Patchwork Help, Advice, Tips and Tricks

Try to be accurate when making quilt blocks

Quilts are sometimes made up from a number of patchwork blocks. Think of patchwork blocks as being the building bricks from which to construct your quilt.

It is quite usual for a quilt to have a given number of blocks which are then joined together with a buffer stripe of fabric between each known as sashing which has the appearance rather like a multi-paned window with blocks between. Each block can be made up from a number of pieces or patches of fabric in varying designs. Possibly these designs within the blocks are not all the same but it is important for the size of the blocks to be accurate or you could land up with a rather distorted quilt.

A good tip is to make up all your patchwork blocks and then check the sizes to make sure they are correct. If all your blocks are supposed to be 12 ½ inches square check them to see if they are. Remember if they are 12 ½ inches square to start with, when they are stitched to adjacent blocks the seam allowance of quarter of an inch on each side will reduce them 12 inches square in the end. You can always trim them to the 12 ½ inches if they have stretched whilst you were making them.

It is much easier sewing together your quilt blocks if they are all the correct size and finishing off your quilt top is then fun.

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