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This beautiful quilt block is one of our favourite blocks ever to appear in Today’s Quilter – we featured it in our first ever issue.
Download our Soothing Sunflower quilting template – Template A (petal) Template B (leaf), Template C (circle), Template D (diamond)
Finished block size
- Block size: 15½in at widest point, 8in along straight sides.
Notes
- Seam allowances are ¼in throughout.
- WOF = width of fabric.
- FQ = fat quarter.
- Press all fabrics before cutting.
- Press all seams open unless otherwise instructed.
If you want to use pre-cuts for the petals and leaves, then the following information may help:
- One 5in square will yield two petals.
- One 10in square will yield eight petals.
- One 10in square will yield eight leaves.
Set-in seams
A set-in seam, sometimes called a ‘Y’ seam, is necessary when three or more pieces of fabric that have angles other than 90 degrees meet at one point (Fig A).
For more detail, see our guide to set-in seams
The stitching line where the pieces meet needs to stop ¼in from the raw edge of a fabric piece, to allow another piece to be set in. For this quilt, these seams will be easier to sew if you mark dots ¼in from the beginning and end of the fabric pieces, to show where to start and stop stitching (Fig B).
Backstitching for a few stitches at the beginning and end of the stitching line will help to secure the seam. The project instructions below give further advice on this.
How to make the sunflower star block
These steps will give you the method to sew one block. When you have the hang of it you can chain piece some of the process, but it’s useful to cut and make one block first, to check things out and practise the technique.
