Sweet Strawberry Quilt Along: Week 2
Now that we have all our fabric for the Sweet Strawberry Quilt cut, we get to start piecing blocks. This is one of our favorite parts of the process! For this week, we will be sewing together all of the full and half blocks (through Step 3 in the book). Of course, you’re welcome to work ahead or catch up next week. It’s really up to you!
Start by laying out the cut pieces, according to the diagram in the book. We used the floor of Audrey’s studio, just to get an overall view of the colors. If you have a design wall or large table, go ahead and use that. It’s important to see everything together to make sure the flow of color is working throughout the strawberry before you start sewing. We kept the lighter colors near the top, since that’s how it is on a real strawberry.
We also labeled the fabrics according to the chart in the book. Just choose the closest ones you have for each color, and then you can switch things around after they are all laid out. It helps having somewhere to start to keep it from feeling overwhelming.
Once you’ve finalized your layout, start sewing the blocks together. (Remember, for this week we’re just sewing the full and half blocks, and trimming the full blocks. We will add the background fabric next week.) By now, you should be pretty familiar with this process, especially if you followed the Spring Wreath and Piece & Joy Quilt Alongs.
Once again, we do suggest pressing the block seams open. It really does make a difference!
At this point, the half blocks are finished for this week. Continue on with the full blocks, trimming them to size once the two halves are sewn together.
With the half blocks pieced and the full blocks pieced and trimmed, you’re done with week two! Next week, we will finish putting the quilt top together. In the meantime, you can share your progress in a couple of different ways:
- On Instagram, use both #sweetstrawberryqal and #theclothparcel hashtags in your post. You can also tag us @theclothparcel.
- 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!
See you next week!
