This block was created at a quilting retreat last weekend, and as usual, I wasn’t prepared. I had to work the day before, I was battling a bad cold … the end result is that I dashed out the door unprepared on Saturday morning. Usually I like to have a couple of blocks cut out and ready to go, so I can sit down and stitch as soon as I arrive. This time I was lucky I left the house with both the fabric and the pattern.

I arrived at retreat knowing that I wanted to eliminate some of the seams from this block (but not entirely sure how I wanted to do that). In addition to unnecessary seams in the borders, the pattern called for having the center circle cut into four pieces. What is the point in that? It interrupts the flow of the design printed on the fabric. It also makes for more bulky seams, something that is not desired when hand quilting. This definitely called for seam simplification.

To create my new pattern for a whole circle center piece, I had planned to cut out 4 quarter-circle pattern pieces and tape them together to make a single pattern piece for the center circle, but the software only printed out one quarter-circle pattern piece … and I needed that pattern piece intact for the quarter circles that are at the corners of the block.

At that point, I was already at retreat and didn’t have a lot of supplies – or options – at my disposal, so I improvised a compass of sorts to create my circular pattern piece. I cut out the one quarter-circle piece with its seam allowance. Then I set it on a blank piece of paper and put a pin right through the point of the quarter-circle (on the stitching line, not the seam allowance line). I traced around the curved part of the piece, then pivoted it slightly around that pin and traced around the curved part of the pattern piece again. Eventually I had pivoted the pattern piece 360 degrees, and voila, I had drawn a circle that was just the right size for the center circle with a 1/4″ seam allowance around the edge.

The other place I wanted to eliminate extra seam allowances was in the borders. Again, there didn’t seem to be any point in having a seam down the middle of each border piece – it just broke up the design and added more bulk to hand quilt through. So, for each border, I added the length of the two border pieces together, and subtracted 1/2″ (for the two 1/4″ seam allowances I wouldn’t have in the middle), and that gave me the measurements I needed for each of my border pieces. I clearly did better this time than the last time I tried this, because I didn’t end up with Frankenstein bolt borders hanging off the edge of my block this time.

I also considered eliminating the seams created by sewing the four red bow-tie pieces together, but ultimately decided not to. Yes, it would eliminate those seam allowances, but then the single piece would have to be cut out in one big circular shape, with a lot of wasted fabric in the middle and around the edges. I decided cutting four separate pieces would save me fabric in the long run. Since I live in fear of running out of that red fabric before I’m done, this seemed like the best course of action.

With accurately-cut pieces, the block went together easily. I sewed the quarter circles on to the bow ties, sewed the bow ties to each other, and then sewed the ring of bow ties to the center circle. This was the only awkward part, as I had 360 degrees of pins holding everything in place. It was a challenge not to stab myself. Once I’d made it through that gauntlet, I attached the border pieces to finish off the block in record time.

Retreat is a great place for guilt-free, uninterrupted quilting time, and I finished two blocks in as many days, but now I’m back to work and have been procrastinating on writing the blog entries for those two blocks before I move on to stitching the next one. My goal is to get this blog entry out the door today, and the second one out tomorrow. Revitalized by my retreat, I can’t wait to get back to stitching!