H-8

Pack a lot of patience for this one. Rushing it will result in a mess. It took me about 5 hours total to make. I kind of wish I'd written down the time it took to make each block. The total should be impressive.

I used reverse applique and foundation piecing to make the block. If you're hand piecing it may be easier to just piece it the regular way.

I made a lot of mistakes during making of the block, so some photos were not usable at all. Be sure to read the instructions carefully.

Out of your main fabric, cut two rectangles 3" x 1 3/4".
Out of your background fabric, cut 1 rectangle 1" x 3" and one rectangle 1" x 3½"
Piece the main fabric rectangles and the shorter background rectangle as follows:

Cut the resulting rectangle in half as shown, leaving you with two rectangles 1½" x 3½" in size.

Using the 1"x3½" background fabric rectangle, assemble your block section.

Print or trace the block diagram onto freezer paper and cut the sections apart as follows. Discard the cut out circular section. Set the corner triangles aside for later use.

Cut a 4" square out of background fabric and iron the freezer paper onto the right side of the fabric, shiny side down. Use a dry iron.
Cut the center section out of the fabric leaving a small seam allowance all the way around. Because the circle is so close to the edges of the square the seam allowance will have to be smaller than usual. Clip the seam allowance to within 2 or 3 threads of the freezer paper all around the inside of the circle.

Here's where I made my first big mistake. Please refer to block C-9 for details on reverse applique.
Place the block section you made (the one with the cross), right side up on your table.
Place the square with the cut out circle on top of this, right side up as well. Center it carefully and be sure to REFER TO THE BLOCK DIAGRAM for placement.
Baste through all layers, being careful to leave enough space for the seam allowance to be turned under when you applique.

Reverse applique the top layer to the bottom layer. Cut away the excess fabric on the bottom layer.
This is what you should end up with:

Now we have to trim this square to the correct size. Using a ruler and a disappearing marker or pencil, mark the seam lines on the square as in the following diagram. I marked corner to corner as 4½" first and then connected the dots to mark the seamlines. Trim the square leaving a ¼" seam allowance.

Now on to some foundation piecing. Number the corner triangle pieces you set aside earlier as follows. I recommend cutting each one apart when you're ready to piece it. This bunch got all mixed up and it took me 10 minutes to put the puzzle together again.

You can click on the photo to see the numbering in more detail.
Foundation piece and assemble the corner triangles. Do not rush. Make sure everything lines up.



Attach the corners to the center square. As always with this kind of block attach opposite corners first.

Wipe the sweat from your brow and do the happy dance.
(If you find errors in this post, please let me know. It was kind of complicated.)