How to Make a Folded Quilt Block

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Welcome to Tuesday’s Tips from SewVeryEasy,
my name is Laura. And I love the look of a cathedral window. I like the idea of that fabric being curled back, the little windows and the fabric peeking out from behind the windows. And there is a block that will give you a similar look without all the work. Now I’m going to be using a Charm Pack. It’s already cut to the 5″ size so it’s a great size to work with, but you can use any size you want. For each block you’re going to need three pieces of fabric the same size. This is a 5″ square, and I have two others in 5″. And for these we need to iron them in half. You need to take the folded edges and put them in the center of the block, matching the raw edges along the edge. So you have the fold in the center and all the raw edges are matching. And I like to use some superfine pins because I’m going to pin the layers together to save me from having to sew the layers together. So I have the center fold that is butt together. I don’t want a gap showing in the center. And you can go ahead and pre-do a pile of these. Here is the same block but I’ve switched the colors so that the yellow is in the inside and the blue is on the outside. And you can also make your blocks by folding them on a diagonal instead of in half, so you’re going to go from corner to corner. Again, match up those centers so that they’re nice and tight and pin the outside. So the fold is going to go from corner to corner instead of through the center. And I did an opposite one. The yellow is on the top and the blue is Inside. So I’m just going to sew the four blocks together. When all the blocks are sewn together you get to open up the little window and stitch it down. If you feel comfortable you can go right to the machine and stitch it, or you can press it down. And that way it’s ready when you get to the machine. And you will just take the opening and just pull it back. And when you do that to both sides it’s going to get that window look with the fabric peeking out from behind. The window opening is going to change depending on if you have the fabric pressed on the diagonal because you’re going to have a little bit more stretch, so you can pull that back and make that window opening bigger. If you’re going to use the one that is just vertical, you’re not going to have as much stretch, so your window will be smaller. Now it’s important that you sew the blocks together first before you pull this back and stitch it. if you stitch it first you’ll have to take into consideration the seam allowance. And you can see that you still have a little bit of an opening here, but you’ve stitched all the way along that edge on both of the curves. If you were to sew this together before you sew the block together, you would have to take into consideration that quarter-inch seam allowance. If you had the curve start right at the end, you would cut off your points. And you can see you have a nice big opening on the one that was pressed with the triangular shape. Because you have the bias there, you are able to pull it further and make a bigger opening. The one that was folded on the straight of grain does not have as much give so the opening will be smaller, but you still have the same effect: That you have the fabric peeking through the window. The diagonal one definitely gives you more of the cathedral window look. However, the diagonal ones will come in handy too. So you can take any pattern and change it with these little windows, even a pieced block, because what will happen is the pieced block will peek through the little window. It’s a fun way to change up a pattern and there’s no math involved. Thank you for joining me today on Tuesday’s Tips from SewVeryEasy. Feel free to subscribe and, as always, come on back. Let’s see what we’re sewing next time in the sewing room. Bye for now!