Spring Wreath Quilt Along: Week 2

Now that we have all our fabric for the Spring Wreath Quilt cut, we get to start piecing blocks. This is one of our favorite parts of the process! Start by laying out the cut pieces, according to the diagram in the book. This is where having your fabric labeled helps the most.

The piecing on these Hourglass blocks is pretty straightforward. Sew the triangles together in pairs, then press the seams and sew the two halves together. We prefer to press seams open for this quilt, even though that’s not our usual choice, just to help reduce the bulk of the seams once the blocks are sewn together. Here’s how we press our seams open:

Since these seams are pieced on the bias, be careful not to stretch the seam as you press. Once you’ve pressed both sides of the block, match them together with the center seams lined up.

We don’t use pins all that often, but when we have pressed the seams open it’s much more difficult to match the seams. Just stick one little pin in right at the intersection to hold everything in place. Alternately, you can use a wonder clip or a tiny dot of glue.

To piece the half Hourglass blocks, you will need to line the center of the background triangle up with the seam of the pieced triangles that make up the other half of the block. Here’s a video to show you how we do it:

Continue piecing all of the Hourglass and half Hourglass blocks until they are all done. You should have 40 Hourglass blocks and 12 half Hourglass blocks.

The last thing you will need to do is square all of the blocks up. You can find the squaring measurements on pages 23 and 24 of the book. Here’s a time-lapse to show you how we do it two sides at a time:

Once you’re finished squaring up all the blocks, you’re finished for this week!

You can share your progress in a couple of different ways:

• On Instagram, use the #springwreathqal and #theclothparcel hashtags. You can also tag us @theclothparcel. Note that if you have a private Instagram account, we won’t be able to see any of your posts.
• In our private Facebook group, you can share photos in a post or in the comments of any of our posts. You can also ask for help or advice there!
• On this post, you can leave a comment telling us about how things are going for you.

We would love to see your progress, and every post you make on Instagram, in our Facebook group, or comment on this post will earn you an entry into our prize drawing at the end of the quilt along!

Next week, we will put the quilt top together. Let us know if you have any questions about piecing the blocks or anything else about the quilt in the comments!