Book Club QAL - Emma | Elm Street Quilts

Having fun hand piecing? It's time to get started on our block #7 - Emma.

While Emma will build on the skills from our prior blocks (Evelyn, Jane, Penelope, Louisa, Cathy, and Jo), she also brings in curved piecing. Curved piecing (IMHO) is much easier to do by hand than it is by machine. (See the tips for hand piecing curves.)

Just remember to take your time and pin, pin, pin.

Still need the pattern for Book Club for the Hand Pieced QAL - grab yours now! Book Club is a 9 block sampler and two block setting to make either a wall hanging or a throw sized quilt. Did you miss the QAL announcement? You can find more information here! If you have any trouble ordering the pattern, please don't hesitate to email us at handpiecedqal@gmail.com - we'll be happy to help!

Tips & Tricks

There are just three basic shapes needed to make our Emma block. Both the curved wedge unit and the half peel will need to be cut by templates. The small center square can be rotary cut. (Check out the tutorial if you need some reminders.) Make sure you mark all your stitching lines on the wrong side of the units. This specialty ruler - The Perfect Piecer - makes it easy marking sewing lines even on curves.

The rotary cutting instructions (if applicable) for the units can be found in the bottom left corner of the pattern sheet. Please consult the tutorials for Using Templates and for Marking Stitching Lines if you need some tips.

Once the my pieces all cut and prepped, keeping a visual layout in front of you will be key to success. It is easy to get those curved pieces flipped around. (I am using my wonderful wool pressing mat to keep everything organized.)

Fold the curved wedge unit (my blue fabric) on top of the half-peel unit (my white fabric). Start by aligning the corner seam intersections and then place several pins in the center. As always, make sure your seams are starting and stopping 1/4'' away from the edge.

The Emma block will assemble in 3 pieces - the two outer corners and the center unit.

Pins are your friends when you are ready to attach the larger units together. Aligning seam intersections, pin a the center and the outer edge before adds pins between.

Your pinned unit will look like this when you are ready to sew.

I really enjoyed putting the Emma block together. (I actually made a second version because I realized I didn't take any in progress photos the first time!)

The link-up for Emma (or any blocks you make this week) will open on Thursday, May 14. You can also add your blocks to the Jo link-up which closes Thursday right as the Emma link-up opens. If you share on IG, please tag your photo with #bookclubqal and #handpiecedqal.

Make sure you go visit Kristen and see her Emma block!

The Book behind the Block

Emma by Jane Austin was first published in 1815. It has been adapted into a movie multiple times and many novels have retold the basic story. Emma is a young woman - beautiful, intelligent and very spoiled - who lives with her father. She imagines herself to be superb at matchmaking and the story unfolds as Emma does her very best to interfere in the lives of people around her.

Emma is represented by the gold square in the center of our block as she works to spin around and orchestrate the lives around her!