Tutorial: Sara’s maple leaf quilt block

We are so crazy about the quilt that our customer, Sara, made with Tiger Lily by Heather Ross! This gorgeous quilt is currently on display in the window of our West Hampstead shop and today, Sara is sharing a tutorial for those beautiful Maple Leaf blocks.

I fell in love with Tiger Lily as soon as I saw the previews, so I was absolutely thrilled when Annie asked me to make a quilt for the shop window! I wanted to do something simple, with big blocks to show off the prints. A maple leaf block seemed to fit well with the line’s end-of-summer vibe, as well as reflect the inspiration of Heather Ross’ childhood spent in Vermont.

Materials I used:

• 23 fat quarters of Tiger Lily – there was lots left over, but I wanted to show off each of the prints in the line.
• Coordinating Kona Cotton Solids – I used Leprechaun, Grasshopper, Peridot, Peony, Punch, Flesh and Grellow. You can easily get two blocks of background fabric from a fat quarter.
• Thread – I used Gutermann sew-all in white for the piecing and Aurifil Mako 50wt Quilting Thread – 2410 for the quilting.
• Cotton batting
• 2m backing fabric

¼ inch seam is used throughout. The finished quilt measures approximately 55 x 66 inches.

Cutting:

For each block, cut the following:

From main fabric:
3 x 3.5” squares
2 x 4” squares
1 x 5×1” strip

From background fabric:
1 x 3.5” square
3 x 4” squares
4 x 11×2” strips

Piecing:

1. Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner of each of the three 4” background squares. Cut one square along this line, and pin the other two on top of the two 4” main fabric squares, right sides together.

2. Make the stem square. Pin and sew the 5×1” main fabric strip to the longest edge of one of the triangles you have just cut from the 4” background block.

Pin and sew the other side of the 5×1” strip to the longest edge of the remaining triangle.

Press seams open and trim to 3.5” square.

3. Prepare the half square triangle (HST) blocks. Sew scant ¼ seams on either side of the diagonal line.

Cut each block along the diagonal line.

Press press seams towards the main fabric, and trim each block to 3.5” square, lining up the diagonal seam with the 45 degree angle on your ruler.

4. Lay out your 9 3.5” squares as follows:

5. Sew squares together into three rows, and press seams open.

6. Sew the rows together, being careful to line up seams, and press seams open.

7. Add the border. Lay your leaf block right side down, and line up the short end of one of the 11×2” background strips with the top right hand corner of the block. Pin in place, leaving a gap of about ½” on the left hand side, where there will be some overlap.

Starting from this point, stitch the strip down and press towards the background strip.

8. With the stitched strip on the left of the block, take another 11×2” strip and line it up with the new edge of the block.

Pin, stitch and press towards the border strip. Turn the block and repeat with the third and fourth strips, pinning the loose tail of the first strip out of the way.

9. Secure the loose tail by folding the first background strip back down over the block, pinning in place and stitching it down.

10. Give the block a final press and trim down to 11” square.

To make the quilt top, I arranged 30 blocks in a 5 x 6 layout, sewed together the rows and then joined the rows together, ensuring that the seam lines were matched. The quilting is fairly dense straight lines, and I used leftovers from the darker FQs for the binding.

Thank you, Sara!