The Vintage Flower Sampler Quilt - Parisienne and Grapes

Yay! It's week 7!!! Our patchwork block this week is, Parisienne. The applique block is Grapes.

 Parisienne - 

The Parisienne block consists of (4) X patches, a center block and setting triangles. Create your templates for the block using your favorite method. I traced mine onto Reynolds Freezer Paper and pressed my templates to my fabric. When pressing the setting triangles to fabric, place the long edge along the straight of grain. This will eliminate any wavy edges along the outside edge of your block.

I found it was best to use a scant quarter inch when piecing blocks with many seams. A scant quarter inch is just a thread shy of 1/4". In blocks with many seams, the fold pressed back actually takes up some space in your block. Multiplied by many seams and the finished block may be smaller than expected.  The scant 1/4" is to accommodate for that. For me, the easiest way to stitch using a scant 1/4" is to move my needle to the right one notch. If you are not able to move your needle, you can use a magnetic seam guide or a piece of tape to mark the scant 1/4". It is just inside the true 1/4" line. 

Once your X squares are finished, its time to add the center square and the setting triangles. Lay your pieces in front of you as they appear in the finished block. Press seams in each row in opposite directions so you can easily nest the seams. Take care to match the seams and pin in place.

 The final piece to add are the 4 triangles to make the block square. Again, I finger pressed a crease in the triangles and matched to the center of the X square. 

Finally, trim your block to 12.5" if necessary. And the Parisienne block is finished!

Grapes - 

 I had so much fun making this block! This is the first one that has embroidery stitches added to embellish the block. 

To make this block, I began by making oodles of circles for the grapes. I used  Kay Buckley Perfect Circles and foil to prepare my circles. You can read about that method here.

I prepared my "grape bunch" and then appliqued it to my background. After printing the pattern tempate on my home printer, I transferred the design to my background. Then I used the paper printed template to arrange my grapes in a bunch. Using Glue-Baste-It, I basted the grapes that were overlapping with a small amount of glue. 

 I found it easier to make this grape applique by starting at the bottom of the bunch. I added the first three at the bottom, glue basting where they overlap.

Then I added the next three and lastly the top four grapes.

Once the bunch was glue basted, I carefully stitched them together where they overlapped. 

Finally, I added the stem and leaf to the background square and then my finished grape bunch! The last addition is the embellishment!

I hope you have fun with this block! Be sure to post your progress with the hashtag #thevintageflowersamplerquiltsal 

We will have another set of blocks next Monday and then the following week will have a break week to catch up!