Shine Quilt Sew Along: Week 4: Make Blocks

The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilt

Exciting news, Sunshine Crew – in Week 4 of our Shine quilt sew along we're still sewing blocks! That may not sound exciting, since we started sewing blocks last week, but it is actually quite thrilling because each time you make a Shine block the result is new and totally unique!

Since we're already over half way into this sew along, I won't bore you with a recap of the sew along details; however, if you are new to joining us, be sure to read all of the details here in the original sew along post. What I will add, though, is if you have any questions or are in need of inspiration, join the Suzy Quilts Patterns Facebook group and ask your questions there. I promise you'll get a speedy and well-informed reply!

I will also have LIVE videos on Instagram and in the SQ Patterns Facebook group every Thursday night at 7:30pm central. After each LIVE video, I embed them in these blog posts, so if you look at the posts from previous weeks, you can find them there too.

Sew Along Schedule

The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilting
The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilt

Shine Sew Along Week 4 Tasks

Last week, this week, and for the next two weeks we will be making Shine quilt blocks. If you want to stay precisely on track, make four each week. But, if life happens and you have to skip a week, no prob! You can divvy the 16 blocks needed to make a throw size any way you like.

My scrappy blocks are coming along nicely and I must say they are soooo fun to make! After cutting all 16 of my FQs, I made two piles – one with short strips and the other with long strips. I then tossed each pile around like a salad. Now that I think about it, not using a salad spinner was a real wasted opportunity.

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Anyway, after all of my fabrics were nicely mixed, I organized some smaller piles, with each block needing 10 long strips and 14 short strips. Then it was off to my sewing machine!

The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilting

Tip! Don't worry too much about your seam allowance.

I published 5 block-making tips in the Week 3 post, so hop back to last week if you missed those. One more tip I'll add is to not sweat the 1/4" seam allowance. Yes, with most quilt patterns it's important to have an exact and consistent seam allowance. However, one thing I'm sure you are quickly discovering about the Shine pattern is that it's not like most quilt patterns.

It works best with imprecision and spontaneity! In the picture below, one of my strips was bowing slightly. Instead of trimming or trying to get the fabric to line up perfectly, I just zipped on through and sewed as close-ish to a 1/4" seam as I could.

I think that pink fabric is a wee bit narrow and that orange fabric is a little wide, bit it doesn't matter. As long as the seam is close and definitely no smaller than an 1/8", it's fine.

The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilting
The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilting

This next step is my favorite part...pressing back the final seam and seeing it all come together! It looks so wonky and wonderful!!

The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilting
The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilt

And ta-da!! The big reveal! One block down, 15 more to go 😉

The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilt
The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilt

The Week 4 Sponsor & Prize

This week I have for your fabric-lovin' enjoyment, the absolute cutest Liberty of London shop on the internet. DuckaDilly! You may remember this shop from the dreamy Thrive quilt kits they started selling over the summer, but did you know they are also selling Liberty of London Shine quilt kits too?

As a prize for our Week 4 winner, DuckaDilly is giving away a $100 gift certificate to their online shop!

How to Win

  • Post a pic to Instagram. The photo prompt for Instagram this week is to post a picture of your Shine quilt progress. Use #ShineQuiltSA in the caption.
  • You must have a public Instagram profile to participate.
  • Each photo posted is an entry and you can enter as many times as you want in a single week. Once the week is over, those posts do not count in the next week's giveaway. Every week we start fresh.
  • Your photo must be posted between 12:00 a.m. CT on Wednesday, October 14, 2020 and 1:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday, October 20, 2020.
  • This prize is open internationally.
  • The winner will be picked randomly from all qualifying posts and announced at approximately 4:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday, October 20, 2020.
The Shine quilt sew along includes lots of added tips and videos to help you make this modern quilt pattern. This fat quarter quilt pattern is beginner friendly and focuses on improv sewing. suzyquilts.com #fatquarterquilt #improvquilting

4 thoughts on “Shine Quilt Sew Along: Week 4: Make Blocks

  1. Jessica Olney says:

    At the beginning, I just cut what I thought I needed (following the cutting guide and getting 10 strips). As I progressed through sewing the strips and blocks, it was often a tight squeeze to get assembled block large enough (to 12.5″). So, I “stole” a bit of length from the 5″ (piano keys) section before cutting the long strips, cut extra strips (long and shorties), and just made the sewn strip of shorties extra long so it would marry up with the other section easily. It’s also liberating to stop following the cutting width guide and just wing it, cutting extra strips to make sure that the block is big enough once assembled and trimmed.
    The magic transformation of the ragged sewn strips into a beautiful block is amazing each time they’re trimmed to a square. Use the tailor’s clapper but beware–it’s hard to give it up!

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