Stella Lane Quilt: Block Construction

Welcome to part two of the blog series dedicated to the Stella Lane quilt pattern.  This post is all about making this quilt block. 

Let’s do a little house keeping before we dive into things.

Don’t have the pattern yet?  You can pick up your copy here!

Looking for a little backstory?  I share about the inspiration for the pattern and share a little behind the scenes when designing the pattern here!

Before you’re ready to sew up a block, make sure you have all of your cut pieces organized!  You can read the last blog post for tips and a video to help you out.

About the Stella Lane Quilt Block

Okay, so you have all of your fabric cut, labeled and ready to go.  You also have your coffee/tea and hopefully some quiet time for sewing…let’s get started!

The Stella Lane quilt block is a log cabin..ish block that finishes at 12 inches.  There are four sub-blocks within each block that are sewn and then sewn together.

It is pretty fast and easy to sew up! 

Sewing your Blocks!

We talked a lot in our last blog post about fabric organization and how important it is for this quilt.  I like to work with only one labeled stack of fabric at a time when I’m sewing a Stella Lane quilt.  

So grab your first pile…perhaps Block A and make sure you have all of your pieces.

TIP:  When you unpin your “Block A” label, set it aside.  We’ll want it again later when our A Blocks are all sewn up!

Once you do, we’ll start by sewing together the C1 & C3 strips and then sub-cutting using the instructions in your pattern (Page 5 of the PDF and Page 4 of the printed booklet).

Once these pieces are cut, you will have all of your components for the block.  Can you believe it?  No trimming of any flying geese or half square triangles!!!  That might just be my favorite part about this quilt :)

But, back to sewing…I like to lay out the pieces for one sub-block as a quick double check and it also serves as a visual reminder so that I make sure I sew all of my pieces in the right places :)

Then, whether you are sewing one block or several, it helps to chain piece during the next steps.  Continue following the instructions (or check out the video down below) and sew your sub-blocks together.  

A NOTE ABOUT PRESSING:  This pattern is pretty forgiving when it comes to pressing. I prefer to press my seams open, but you could just as easily press all of your seams towards the darker fabric without it getting bulky.

Once all of your sub-blocks are sewn, we’ll finish up our block.  Again, I like to start by laying out the block to make sure everything looks right.  Then, sew your top two sub-blocks together and then your bottom two sub-blocks together.  And finally, sew the top half to the bottom half and viola…behold your gorgeous quilt block.

This video is sped up to about 4 times normal speed; it takes me roughly 15 minutes to make a single block.

Once you’ve sewn a block or two and have the hang of it down, this is a great pattern to begin chain piecing.  I like to sew a grouping of blocks…like all of my A Blocks by chain piecing and saving a ton of time.

I also like to use labels to keep my finished blocks organized by A, B, C, D, and E.  This will make it easier when we’re working on our final quilt layout.  So, find that little label you set aside before you started sewing, and pin it to the stack of blocks you just finished.

Oh yea, and if you’re using the progress tracker that came with the pattern, make sure you fill your bubbles for all of your finished quilt blocks!!  It is really incredibly satisfying to watch those bubbles fill up!

The next and final blog of this series, we’ll talk about arranging our blocks into our final quilt layout and then sew it up!  I’ll be sharing tips about how to play around with the final layout.