I Wish You a Merry QAL - Block 4

For this fortnight of the I Wish You a Merry Quilt Along, blocks 3 AND 4 are being released!

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If you're new here, hello! I'm Laura! I design quilt patterns, and I'm a self-proclaimed deal hunter! Be sure to join the popular Quilting & Sewing Deals Facebook group where I post sales, deals, and coupon codes from all around the web!

Block 4, named Christmas Memories, was designed by Jennifer Fulton of The Inquiring Quilter. The pattern and tutorial are on Jennifer's blog (tutorial here).

The block features four appliqued Christmas ornaments, and I knew my Kona fabric color palette would create a vintage ornament look! I'm using Kona Breakers, Lipstick, and Cactus (with accents of Black and Chocolate in some blocks). I am also using a silver lamé fabric as an accent too. (It requires a much lower heat setting than the cotton fabric. Ask me how I know!) My background fabric is Moda Bella 98 White.

For my block, I used Heat-N-Bond Lite for fusing the pieces. I fused the ornaments onto the background fabric one piece at a time. (Using very low heat for the silver lamé fabric!)

After fusing all the pieces, I realized that the far right ornament appeared in front of all the others at the top of the block, but was tucked under the third ornament at the bottom. This happened because of the order I pressed my ornaments. A small detail, but once I saw it, I couldn't stop seeing it! I pressed just that small portion again so the heat would release the adhesive. I lifted the edge of the ornaments and brought the corner of ornament 4 to the front. (Notice the "before" and "after" in the photos below.)

For stitching down the pieces, I used Aurifil 50wt thread in colors that match my fabrics: Dove #2600 on the silver fabric, Shining Green #5017 on the Kona Cactus, Red #2250 on Kona Lipstick, and Light Jade #1148 on Kona Breakers.

To applique on the pieces, I just straight stitched about an 1/8" inside the raw edge of each piece.

I have a 12 1/2" square Omnigrid acrylic ruler that I used to trim the background fabric when done. It is really helpful for ensuring designs are centered before trimming.

A peek behind the seams!

I really love how this one turned out! It has a bit of a vintage ornament vibe - and a bit of a Grinch Christmas vibe too.

And I'm even more in love with how all of the first four blocks look together!

Have you seen the other hosts' versions of this block? They are all so different!

Abbie at Sparkle On

April at JANDA Bend Quilts
Becca at Pretty Piney

Bobbi at Snowy Days Quilting
Diane at Cwilt Fabrics & Haberdashery
Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter
Karen at Tu-Na Quilts

Laura at Slice of Pi Quilts <-----That's me!
Sandy at Sandy Star Designs
Sherry at Powered by Quilting
Vanda at Quilt in Piece

Remember, you can jump into the QAL at any time! You can always go back and make the previous blocks or just make the blocks that you like! Make a whole quilt using just a single block or make Christmas pillows for the whole family! There will be an amazing grand prize giveaway for those that complete a quilt top using all twelve blocks by January 16th!

Be sure to share a picture of your finished Christmas Memories block before September 12th to be entered to win prizes! You can post a picture in the Facebook group, on Instagram using #iwishyouamerryqal, or link up to the linky party at the bottom of Jennifer's tutorial post.

The prizes for Block 4 are packages of Steam-A-Seam from The Warm Co. AND a pattern of your choice from Jennifer Fulton of The Inquiring Quilter! All prizes during the QAL will be open to participants worldwide!

As a BONUS, Jennifer is offering 20% off all her patterns through September 30th at midnight EST! Just enter the code MERRYQAL20 at checkout. The discount applies to printed and pdf patterns. See all her patterns here.

Join the fun! Let's all quilt along!

Linking up with Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts, Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter, and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.

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If you liked this post, you may also like these:

Exploding Heart QAL - Week 1

Destination: Quilt Along - Block 1

12 Days of Ornaments - Day 8