Patchiqué Week 2 – Blocks 3 and 71

Block 3 in "Japanese Taupe Quilts" by Susan Briscoe is called Sakiori shima which translates to ‘rag-weave stripe’. 

Block 3 - Courtesy of Susan Briscoe

The book instructs you to cut 27 small rectangles and stitch them together.  But I’ve got a simpler, quicker way.  Cut ten 12" x 1½” strips – five from one fabric and five from another.  Stitch them together along the 12" length using a perfect ¼” seam.  You should end up with a block that measures 12" x 10½” and looks a little like this:

Your block should have ten strips

From this block cut three 3½” wide strips.  Remove one rectangle from each strip so that, when you stitch them together, you will have alternating blocks. 

It sounds a lot of work but it is actually very quick.  If you cut and stitch accurately you will find Block 3 goes together really easily.

As for Block 71 (Mizuno kengata rokuyō) – it is rated as a medium difficulty.

Block 71 - Courtesy of Susan Briscoe

But this is not true – it is an easy block – a very, easy block.  You don’t even need your protractor to set the appliqué leaves at 60 degrees apart.  All you need to do is position the top and bottom leaf so that they are in the middle of the block and approximately ½” from the outer edge.  From there, position the remaining leaves so that the edges line up in straight lines – as shown in this photo, leaving a small gap between each leaf.        

And do you see what I see?

 

Yep – a flower.  The gaps between the leaves make a secondary flower pattern.  Very clever.  (It was hard to see this in the book due to the fabrics used.)

Be sure to check out Susie’s Sunroom and Sew Crooked in the next couple of days.  Susie is making some awesome blocks using turquoise and mocha.  And Helena, at Sew Crooked has set out to make every block in the book and, if the first few are anything to go by, you’ll want to be checking each and every one!

The next two blocks I intend to make are Block 4 (patched) and Block 72 (appliqued).

Sew until next time ......