March Block- Shamrock
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! The shamrock is a well known symbol of Ireland as is the colour green. Get your green on even if you’re not Irish by stitching up this lucky shamrock. Also, according to folklore, wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns…if they see you they pinch!
(***scroll to the bottom of the page for a printable PDF version of this pattern)
Cutting Instructions (for one 12” finished block- it will be 12 ½” before sewing on 1 ½” strips):
From a variety of green scraps:
cut nineteen 2 ½” squares
cut five 3” squares
cut one 1” x 8” strip (for stem)
From a variety of white on white scraps:
cut one 6 ½” square
cut five 3” squares
cut 2 strips 1 ½” x 12 ½”
cut 2 strips 1 ½” x 14 ½”
Outer border fabric (.25 m / ¼ yd): *** you might not want to cut the outer border lengths until your block is completed with narrow background borders in case seam allowances are not consistent
cut two 3 ½” WOF (width of fabric) strips (cut one 14 ½” and one 20 ½” length from each strip)
Binding: three 2 ½” strips (.25 m / ¼ yd)
Backing: one piece 23” square
Batting: one piece 23” square
Hanging sleeve: one piece 5” x 20 ½”
Sewing instructions:
*** ¼” seam allowances are used throughout. Refer to my Scant Quarter Inch tutorial for your own perfect ¼” seam.
Stem: the 6 ½” white square, the 1” x 8” green strip and one 2 ½” green square
press each long edge of the green strip to the back by ¼”
centre the green strip diagonally on top of the 6 ½” white square and edgestitch along each fold (figure 1)
draw a diagonal line on the back of the green square, place it on one corner of the white square (where an end of stem is) and stitch along the drawn line (figure 2)
trim the seam allowance to ¼” and press to the corner (figure 3)
figure 1
figure 2
figure 3
figure 4
Half Square Triangles (HST's): five 3” green squares and five 3” white squares (these HST's are in different colours...the prepping is the same)
draw a diagonal line on the back of all the 3” white squares
with right sides together place a green square with a white square and stitch ¼” from both sides of the drawn line (repeat for all 5 sets)
cut them apart along the drawn line and press seam towards the green (figure 4)
Trimming HST's: (these HST's are in different colours...the trimming is the same)
line up the diagonal line from the ruler on top of the seam line making sure that the entire 2 ½” area of the ruler is on top of the HST and trim the excess from the right and top of the square (figures 5 & 6)
turn the HST around and place the 2 ½” markings from the ruler on the already trimmed corner and trim the final 2 sides (figures 7 & 8)...repeat with all HST's
figure 5
figure 6
figure 7
figure 8
Block layout:
lay out the 2 ½” squares, the HST's and the stem square by following the photograph below for placement (you will have an extra HST left over) and notice that there are 3 sections to this block (figure 9 & 10)
stitch the squares in the bottom right section together first, in 3 separate rows, pressing seams in each row in opposite directions (figure 10)
stitch that section to the stem square
stitch the squares in the upper section together in 3 separate rows and press seams in the opposite direction to the other completed unit
stitch the 2 sections together to complete the block and press seams in one direction (figure 11)
figure 9
figure 10
figure 11
Narrow borders (figure 12):
figure 12
stitch 1 ½” x 12 ½” white strips to the sides of the block and press seams toward the strips
stitch 1 ½” x 14 ½” white strips to the top and bottom of the block and press seams toward the strips
*** If you plan on making a calendar quilt, just stop with this completed block. If you want to make a wallhanging follow the instructions below.
Outer border:
stitch 3 ½” x 14 ½” outer borders to the sides of the block and press seams toward the borders (figure 13)
stitch 3 ½” x 20 ½” outer borders to the top and bottom of the block and press seams toward the borders (figure 14)
figure 13
figure 14
Finishing:
layer the backing, batting and top together and either spray-baste or pin-baste the layers together
quilt as desired, also run a straight stitch within the seam allowance all around the outer edge...this stabilizes the edge for applying the binding
trim backing and batting even with the quilt top
follow my Hanging Sleeve tutorial
apply the binding using your preferred method (the hanging sleeve will be stitched in place as the binding is sewn on) or follow my Best Ever Binding tutorial