The Splendid Sampler-Block 3

I thought I'd do a post about my progress with the Splendid Sampler Quilt Along.  Block 3 has lots and lots of little triangles.  Melissa Corry developed this block and she gives great sewing tips on her blog about how to put together all of the itty-bitty triangles.    You can find her blog post HERE.  

I think this would be a very hard pattern to do on a sewing machine.  I am glad I did it by hand.  It took a really long time but I was able to make most of my points match because I was sewing it by hand.

Melissa's suggestion that you iron all seams open is a very good one.  This 2-1/2 inch block would be very bulky if the seams were ironed to one side or the other. In addition, it allowed for accurate placement of the needle when joining points.  Having the needle go in through the seam at the 1/4" line and come out the seam on the other side, helped keep those points together. 

I pushed my needle through a this point and did a stitch to secure the thread.  I then sewed to the upper edge of the block and secured the thread.

Next, I did the same thing at the bottom of the heart and stitched to the starting point of my last seam.  I'm just not a good enough quilter to start at one end of the block and go to the other and get all of my points right. 

The finished (really little) block

 I did all of my blocks this way.  Starting my stitching where the points met.  There was a lot of starting and stopping!

 Melissa recommends using pins when you put the block together.  I don't think you could really put the block together without pins.  Having the open seams really helps place the pins at the points.  There is no bulkiness, which helps your sewing needle stay in place as it stitches along the line.  

 This is my final block.  The fabric combination makes it a little muddy, but I like it because the muddiness hides the little imperfections.  

This block was challenging, and I feel very good about the way it turned out.  The Splendid Sampler Quilt Along is really stretching my skills.  

Linking to:
BOM's Away, Show Off Saturday, Sunday Stash, Oh Scrap,