Away for too long…(again), but redeeming myself with summer flower wreath tutorial! :)

I really have to get away from starting my blog so often with “been away too long…” bla, bla…REALLY.
Summer does beckon us all more to the outdoors, so I am only hoping all of you are also less by the computer and internet too…LOL!
Time to garden, walk, have outdoor cookouts and -in my case, do some house remodeling! Trouble is – after doing all that, mainly physical stuff, once I go to bed thinking I will have my laptop and do some blogging…I fall asleep before it even boots-up! 🙂
Do it first thing in the morning? Do it when making a break? When do you all do your blogging? How do you stay regular in your postings? Any advice? I sure need some, and thanks!

OK, now lets get back to some sewing. Remember this wall hanging I shared some time ago?

It is a very color-versatile wreath done with only two simple, paper-pieced blocks! I use this as a project when I teach paper-piecing as a technique to beginners and it really works well. I did promise a tutorial here for this wall hanging and I am so sorry you had to wait this long!! I hope the joy of making this and using it later over and over (it can be done in colors for ANY season – see bellow!) will make you all forgive me! 🙂
I call this one above SUMMER SONG. So lets get started!

SUMMER SONG – Wall hanging, 32″x32″ (with borders) or 24″x24″ (without borders)
Fabric requirements:
 
– Background fabric–(it could be light or dark!) – 2/3 yard (go for a whole yard if using it for binding too)
– Flower color fabric (red, pink, blue, whatever color you like your flowers) – ¼ yard (or a Fat Quarter)
– Leaves fabric (green) – ¼ yard (or Fat Quarter)
– flower centers (yellow/gold…usually) – 1/8 yard (or scraps enough to cut twenty 2” squares
– Border fabric (optional, but it could serve as your inspiration point to choose all other colors!) – ½ yard
–Accent (narrow) border and binding (optional, you can skip narrow border and do the binding in Border fabric too) –  1/2 yard

Getting ready for paper-piecing:
For all of you who do paper-piecing as a technique, you may or may not pre-cut all your fabric pieces. You certainly don’t have to, that is the advantage of this technique, but I find that if I do pre-cut, work is faster, more organized and I do waste a bit less fabric. So bellow is a cutting chart for the blocks needed in this wall hanging: you will need 16 of the small flower blocks (4″ finished) and 4 of the large flower blocks (6″ finished) to complete the wall hanging. Cutting chart is organized by fabric, it shows you how many pieces you need for 1 block or for 16 (or 4) blocks that are needed for this project. It also has the same designation for each piece as it is marked on the paper foundation. This is how small flower block and large flower block look like:
 

large flower
small flower

Cutting chart
SMALL FLOWER BLOCK (4” finished)
                                                            For 1 block                             For whole wreath
                                                                                                            (16 blocks total)         
Background fabric
            2” square (A1)                                     1                                              16
            2”x3” rect. (A3)                                  1                                              16
         1 1/2”x 2 1/2” (A5,7,9,11)                     4                                              64
Flower center
            2” square (A2)                                     1                                              16
Flower fabric:
            2”x 3” rect. (A4)                                 1                                              16
            2” x4” rect. (A6)                                 1                                              16
Leaves fabric:
            2” x4” rect. (A8)                                 1                                              16
            2” x5” rect. (A10)                               1                                              16

 

LARGE FLOWER BLOCK (6” finished)
                                                                                                            (4 blocks total)
Background fabric:
            2” square (A1)                                     1                                              4
            2” x3” rect. (A3)                                 1                                              4
            2” x4” rect. (A6)                                 1                                              4
            2” x 5” rect. (A7)                                1                                              4
 1 1/2” x 2 1/2” rect. (A9,11,13, 15)               4                                              16
Flower center:
            2” square (A2)                                     1                                              4
Flower fabric:
            2”x 3” rect. (A4)                                 1                                              4
            2”x 4” rect. (A5)                                 1                                              4
            2”x 5” rect. (A8)                                 1                                              4
            2”x 6” rect. (A10)                               1                                              4
Leaves fabric:
            2”x 6” rect. (A12)                               1                                              4
            2”x 7” rect. (A14)                               1                                              4

Additional pieces needed to complete the wall hanging:

from Background fabric: ONE 8 1/2″ square
                                      FOUR  2 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ rectangles
                                      FOUR  2 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ rectangles

My suggestion to you, if you are pre-cutting, is to organize all pieces by their block designation (A1, A2…) and either pin them with a post-it note or put them in zip-lock bags (specially if not sewing right away). That way, once you are ready to sew, you can line them up from A1 to A11 and get on with your paper-piecing!
You can find the PDF file with your paper foundation for the small flower HERE and for the large flower HERE. Since small flower has two blocks on one sheet pf paper, you will need to print 8 papers (total of 16 flowers) and large flower can only fit one per sheet, you will need to print 4 of these.

Once you completed all your paper-pieced flowers, here is how to put the wreath together:

WREATH CONSTRUCTION
           1. Arrange four small flower blocks in a larger unit as shown bellow (this unit will measure 8 1/2”):
Note the orientation of the flowers! It does look wrong here but it will work in the wreath! 🙂 Make total of 4 of these larger units. 
           2. Next, take the large flower block  and add two strips of background fabric to the right side and the top of it, as shown on the diagram bellow:

NOTE the position of the background strips – they need to be on the right side and top side of the block! Repeat this for all 4 large flower blocks.
Once you have these done, together with 4 for larger units you made in previous step – you have eight blocks that are all 8 1/2″ . Take the plain, 8 1/2″ square of background fabric you cut before and with the other 8 blocks you just completed, lay out the wreath as shown bellow:
 
This is now one large 9-patch! Therefore, join three units in each row together and then join three rows together – just like you would any 9-patch unit – and TA-DAH!! your wreath is done! YAY!! 
 At this point wall hanging measures 24 1/2″. You can choose not to add any borders, but if you want it as mine above, you will need:
– 4 strips that are 1 1/2″ wide and  33″ long (I just cut them by the whole width of fabric) – from accent color (teal in my wreath)
– 4 strips that are 4 1/2″ wide and 33″ long (again, you can cut them from the whole width of fabric)- from your border fabric.
To have narrow and wide border with mitered corners you need to:
– join each narrow strip to one wide strip, lengthwise, into a border strip-set – make 4 of these.
– attach each border strip-set to one side of the wall hanging, making sure you centered them (so that you have same length “tail” of the borders on each side of the wreath)
– miter the corners! You can find my tutorial on mitering the corners HERE .
Here are Christmas and Fall colorings for the wreath, as well as some other ideas how you can use these flower blocks:
 I hope you will like making this! Let me know what you think, if you have questions or share your ideas and projects – I would LOVE to see them!
Marija


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0 replies
  2. Irene
    Irene says:

    Thank you for sharing this pattern. It is exactly what I have been looking for! Hopefully I will be able to make one in spring colors – for next year, if not this year!

    Reply
  3. Marija
    Marija says:

    Sorry you have trouble! It works fine for me… And most others so I am thinking it can be the browser you are using? Can you try to use Google Chrome? I can also send you directly the files but since you commented as "Anonimous" I can't do it… If you want, email me at mvquilts @ yahoo . Com and I will send them to you

    Reply
  9. Marija
    Marija says:

    I even tried logging-out of my account to make sure it works for everyone and the link worked. Could it be something with the internet browser that you are using? I use Google Chrome. Again, since you commented as "Anonymous", I can't email you directly, so if you send me an email to the address above, I can send you the files directly. Hope this helps and thank you for visiting my blog and commenting! 🙂

    Reply
  12. Marija
    Marija says:

    Hey there, I did not hear from anyone else so far having problems printing… I just tried again and it looked fine, so maybe if you can describe what is the problem exactly – not printing at all, wrong size, can't open that link? You commented as "anonymous" so I can't email you directly, but feel free to email me with more questions (mvquilts@yahoo.com )

    Reply
  15. Bonnie
    Bonnie says:

    Ditto Diane's comment. I really like how versatile this little wreath is. And, you've shared some nice alternatives. Thanks. As for blogging consistently — hasn't been happening in my life. And, now my primary computer isn't working at all. Hum, I may be getting a new computer earlier than I had planned. If I do, I'm getting the program that runs windows software on Macs as I am a Mac lover. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

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