June "Sew Easy Block of the Month"- Around the World!

The written pattern can be purchased as part of the Classic Sew Easy Block of the Month Pattern and is available in the Shop.

Alright fellow quilters!! We’ve been doing some pretty fun and classic blocks up until now. The block for June is also a classic block, although it’s a bit intimidating!! But you don’t need to worry! This tutorial is detailed enough, and sewing with curves really isn’t too bad.

The name of this month’s block is Around the World. It is also known as Drunkards Path, and you can make a whole quilt out of just this curved block!

The fun part about making this block is that by changing the color of one area, it changes the focal point of the block. So don’t be afraid to play with color and fabric selection!

 Check out the blocks below! The block looks totally different depending on where you put your light/background fabric.  

Ok, so lets get right to it! To cut out this block, you’ll need the template for the curved pieces.  It is included in the printable pattern at the end of the post, or you can get it here!

Cutting Instructions:

If you’ll be using scraps from your fabrics stash you will need pieces that are at least 6 1/2 inches or larger. It is better to have a slightly larger piece and then to trim it down to size.

Another tip for keeping the template pieces straight: Keeping track of concave versus convex can be very confusing and mentally exhausting. I’ve learned to think of them as:

concave = a piecrust 

convex = a pie slice

On the template pieces themselves I made sure to mark which piece was concave and which piece was convex. These terms refer to which direction the curve is facing. When you print out your own template it may be easier for you to mark the CONCAVE piece as the PIECRUST and the CONVEX piece as the PIE.

(The pdf pattern itself does not refer to the pieces this way, so you may need to make notes as you go. And also on an unrelated note, I may need to make some pie when we’re done.)

Cut:
Concave piece
      (2) background fabric pieces
      (2) color fabric pieces
Convex piece
      (2) dark fabric pieces
      (2) color fabric pieces

Sewing instructions:

The easiest way to get the pieces to fit together correctly is to finger press or iron the center so you know where to match them up.

To do this, take a concave (piecrust) background piece and a dark fabric convex (pie) piece.

Fold the outside straight edges together for each piece and finger press the fold. This helps you find the center of the curve. Pinned them together on the fold, right sides together.

This next part seems daunting, but once you get the hang of it, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Take the narrow straight edge of the convex (pie) piece and twist it to the outside straight edge of the concave (piecrust) piece see the picture below.

This is what the concave (crust) piece will look like when everything is pinned together.  There will be a lot of ruffling on the concave piece because it has to fit the curve of the convex (pie) piece.

 If you want to pin all four of convex and concave pieces together first before sewing, do it now!

 Then we head to the sewing machine to sew the curve! When you’ve pinned it this much, just go very slow on your machine and you should be able to follow the curve of the fabric just fine. Make sure to use a 1/4″ seam allowance.

You can choose to take out the pins as you sew, or be a rebel like me and sew over the pins! When I’m sewing over pins I go slowly to ensure I don’t break a needle.

 Although it has happened before where I’ve hit a pin and didn’t break the pin or the needle! No really!

I’m still pretty impressed that I could hit a pin straight on like this and not break my needle or throw my machine’s timing out! Pretty sure this won’t happen again a second time. Which is why I say go slowly when sewing over pins!!

After you’ve sewn your curved seam, press it! The seam will naturally fall toward the curved piece, which is how I pressed it as well.

Repeat with all four blocks.

Follow the picture below for the layout of the block.

You just want to make sure that you have two same colored curves facing toward the center of the block, with the other curves facing toward the outer corners.

When it comes to pressing seams between blocks, I almost always press them open. It makes my job as a longarmer much easier. So I pressed these seams open!

But you can press them any way you like. 😀

Thanks again for sewing along with me!

Please be sure to share your progress using the hashtag #seweasybom – I can’t wait to see what you create!

And be sure to join the FaceBook Group Sew Easy Block of the Month.

You can also follow me on Instagram for video tutorials on all these block patterns!