Canada Day Quilt...Making the Maple Leaves

Hello from snowy St. John's, NL. Well March is definitely coming in like a lion...two snow storms in three days. As long as it goes out like the promised lamb I'm ok!

There was an exciting development in my family this week. Our second granddaughter was born! We are in complete one household lock down here right now, but we had to care for granddaughter #1 during the days just before the birth and over the hospital stay, so we had to double bubble.  This is a blessing because it allows me to continue to help my daughter, and therefore get to have baby snuggles. Probably not today though! Even though our son-in-law is an essential worker,  he likely won't be working today,  which gives me a snow/sew day.

I had finished the string pieced blocks,  so the next step was cutting some whites,  creams,  and a few reds for stem pieces. 

If it looks like a lot of pieces,  don't panic! I'm actually making 2 quilts at one time.

The next step is putting together the blocks that become the stems. I cut my pieces a half inch shorter than Bonnie suggests in the pattern, and still had plenty. 

I'm working with my whites first,  and pieced all the first sides and then ironed.  We are generally told to press to the dark, but Bonnie tells us to press to the triangles.  It is important that you do this because it makes the trimming a little easier. 

When you are ready to sew on the next triangles, line up the corners.  Don't stress over this too much because you will trim next.

All ready for trimming.  I had hoped to use my rotary mat, but it is in hard shape and some of the diagonal lines are worn off, so I had to drag out my large mat again (I don't have a dedicated sewing room here because we were in more need of a play room!) I should put a new rotary mat on my Christmas wish list!

To trim these blocks,  line up the middle of the stems with a diagonal line, and trim 2 sides to the proper size (go back to the pattern to see the size).

Then rotate the block or use a different diagonal and line up as before. 

Before you cut the last 2 sides, be sure your block is lined up so that the middle of the stem will be a corner on each side. 

All the whites are done!

I decided to make one maple leaf block before chain piecing all the little sections together.  This gives me a visible template,  which is always nice when putting together a block with lots of pieces and different orientations. I made sure to follow Bonnie's pressing directions. 

I rarely pin except when nesting seams. A trick for them is to have the seam on the bottom fabric facing away from you. Then the feed dogs push the fabric toward the seam you need to nest.

Looks ok so far.

First one done! At the top of my pressing mat you can see the start of my cream stem blocks .  I'm using them as leaders and enders while putting the maple leaf block together. 

Now I'll chain piece to put together the rest of the white blocks. 

See you in a few days!