August’s Square

I made August’s square last week. I was expecting it to take longer to make than it did because it looked like there was a lot of work plus when I had just sat down to sew I had some unexpected child care. With respect to the latter I was able to sew while he played with cars and regarding the former I could do a lot of chain piecing.

This block was labeled as appliqué but making a template was also involved. The flower has 20 petals. I had scraps of yellow in four different colours but decided to buy some more. An eighth-yard in three different colours when on sale at Jo-Ann’s does not cost very much. A template was made for the petals and the cutting out did not take long as I was able to layer two or three fabrics and then cut out with a small rotary cutter. Each petal was sewn across the top to make the point, turned to the right side and pressed. I then sewed the petals in pairs. I didn’t have any order for this, just made sure I didn’t have two of the same. Some of the pairs were sewn into four groups of four and then two groups of ten were made. These two groups were joined into a circle.

Here’s photos showing them before and after pressing.



The circle was then sewn to the green square – the appliqué part. There was no way I was going to do this by hand so I used zigzag stitch. I am very pleased with it; also very grateful for the needle up/down function on my new machine. The green is from the fat quarter I bought for March’s square. I am happy that I had a big piece in stash.

Flower sewn to block.



The centre of the flower is appliqué and a new to me method. The circle is cut larger than the template, running stitches made in the seam allowance, gathered around template. This was easier than expected as I had never done it before. The secret is to make stitches small and make sure they are all the same distance from the edge.

Finished block. This is the largest one so far.