The 90 second Sunflower Quilt Block Tutorial

I posted a tutorial series for several autumn blocks last fall on Instagram, but wanted to make them available here as well! We're going to start with the 12 inch sunflower block. I love this little block so much! It pairs with bees, or pumpkins, or crows... or you can sew a stem block later in the tutorial series if you just want it to stand alone. This thing seriously goes with all my favorite summer AND fall themes. Since we are doing bees on the cross stitch side right now, it's a great time to whip this one up! Because so many of you are cross stitchers first and may be just dipping your toes into the quilting world, I am intentionally leaving out things from the block that can feel a little more tricky -- like flying geese. We're just doing sew-and-flip triangles because those are easy peasy and I want you to feel successful! The tutorial moves pretty quickly in the video because I had to make it fit in the Instagram reel length that was available at the time, so feel free to use that pause and rewind feature! I'll put the relevant details here below so you're not having to try to screenshot, and also to clarify what you're seeing on the screen, just in case. If you're good with the video, skip the text wall ;). I’ve noted time sections below so you can just jump to a specific explanation if one is needed. SUPPLY LIST: Shown at :02 To make two blocks, you will need the following:

• One 9" square of white fabric

• Two 9" squares of light yellow fabric (If you've got a 9x18" strip, just cut it in half. If you don't, scrappy is fine!)

• Three 9" squares of dark yellow fabric (Again, if you've got a 9x27 strip, subcut it into thirds. Scrappy is fine too!)

• Eight 3.5" squares of dark yellow fabric (Subcutting a 28" strip will make this so much faster. I like to give myself a little bit of wiggle room when there's a lot of pieces like that. If you're like me, maybe round up and subcut a 30" strip)

• Two 6.5" squares of black fabric. (Subcut a 6.5 x 13" strip in half, or just be scrappy:)

DIRECTIONS (not shown, but you should do this with all your piecing so let's talk about it briefly): Starch or use heavy duty faultless sizing to make your fabric easier to work with. I think you'll be happier with both the process and the finished project if you do. You don't HAVE to, but I promise it will make your life so much easier. Take the time to prep your fabric before you start cutting it up. Set your stitch length to 2.0. Some people do 1.8 which is totally fine, but I love my seam ripper and 2.0 is a good balance for me. It's somewhere between "tight enough to hold the block together" but "wide enough that jack (my ripper) can save me from my mistakes" if I need it to. Use 1/4" seams. I'm on team "Press your seams open" because I hate dealing with a lump on one side, but you do you. If you want to press to the dark side, you go right on ahead. A lot of times you'll see "scant" 1/4" seams in patterns, and although I didn't make a big deal of it in the tutorial, it's just a good idea to work toward scant 1/4" seams once you've nailed the 1/4". The way I think about "scant" seams is just a thread or so over in the weave from the 1/4" line. The reason for "scant" is that when you press the fabric open, that "scant" extra thread is the space you need to be able to fold the fabric back to a perfect 1/4". You're not turning a 1/4" seam into an 1/8" seam or anything- it's more just to give you the slightest bit of space to fold your fabric back. Shown at :05 Start constructing the centers of the sunflowers.

Shown at :09 Using a fabric marking pen, mark a diagonal line corner to corner on the back (or "wrong") side of all the 3.5" squares of dark yellow fabric.

Shown at :15 The 6.5" black square will be the center of each sunflower. On each of those black pieces, Layer two of your newly marked yellow squares in opposite corners as shown in the video. The front (or "right") side of the yellow and black squares should be touching in the middle, and the marked side on the back of the yellow squares should be facing up at you.

Sew on that marked line. Shown at :19 Once you've sewn two yellow squares to the black center of each block, trim 1/4" from the sewn line

...and press open. (And by "press" I mean lift the iron up and down. You're just using heat to fold the fabric. Don't drag it along or you'll stretch out your pieces.)

If you need to trim the blocks a touch after pressing open, do that now. Be careful not to make them smaller. Just shave off any stragglers that make them look like they are not a nice square. Shown at :25 You still have two bare corners in your 6.5" square. Sew the remaining 3.5" yellow squares to each one of those empty corners as shown in the video.

Shown at :28 Trim 1/4" from the sewn line....

...and then press the center open. (Remember... up and down with the iron, my friends. Dragging is bad. Lift and press.) Trim stragglers as needed and set aside. Congrats! The center is done.

Like I said, easy peasy! Shown at :35 Moving onto the petals next, we'll need to make some HST's (That stands for Half Square Triangles) There are a bunch of ways to do these, and I opted for a method that would give us the right number for 2 blocks. However, these can be stretchy. This is why I wanted you to treat your fabric. Starching really cuts down on the stretchiness, which will help your block not to look wonky when it's done. If you did not pre-treat your fabric, just sew very carefully to avoid stretching the material. Draw diagonal lines corner to corner on the back (or "wrong") side of all three 9" dark yellow fabric squares. X marks the spot with these!

Shown at :43 Stack your squares to sew into HST's. Layer one of the marked 9" dark yellow squares and the 9" white square of fabric together with the front (or "right") sides touching in the middle. Marked lines should be facing you. Pin or clip them now if that will help you sew them together evenly. Protip: Sewtites has magnets that are so great to use instead of pins and they are fabulous. Layer the other two marked 9" squares on top of the 9" light yellow squares so the right sides are touching in the middle. Marked sides should be facing you again. You will pair one dark yellow square and one light yellow square, twice, so they are two separate stacks. Pin or clip if that will help you sew them together evenly.

At this point, should have three separate fabric square stacks. One is white/dark yellow, and two are light yellow/dark yellow. Shown at :50 One fabric square stack at a time, sew 1/4" away from both sides of the drawn lines as shown in the video

Shown at :56 Time to slice and dice! Cut each sewn fabric stack top to bottom, side to side, and along the diagonal X's you drew. Do not move the blocks apart until you are finished slicing them. (Is it just me or does "slicing" sound harsh...? :P) This will give you 16 dark/light yellow HSTs and 8 dark yellow/white HSTs.

Shown at 1:00 Press all those squares open and then trim to 3.5" so they are nice and square. (aka "Square them up.") Shown at 1:06 Arrange into Sunflowers.

Shown at 1:08 Sew it all together! I sewed the dark/light yellow HSTs together first to make the petals for the flowers. (You experienced quilters will probably recognize this as a great spot for some flying geese. Trying to keep it simple for the beginners here. ;)) Sew/assemble the side petals to the center black square to make the middle of each block then sew the top and bottom rows together, then sew those top and bottom rows to the centers as shown in the video. Press all the seams open as you go (or press them to the dark side if that's your preference) and trim as needed. I like to do a finishing lap around the edge of each block if it's going to be a while before I sew them to something else. I just stitch a bitty line 1/8 an inch from the edge, all the way around each square. That holds it together and won't show when it's time to assemble them into something else. Finishing lap or not, once you've pressed all the seams open and trimmed the block to a nice 12.5" around all the edges, you're done!

For those of you who are new to quilting, you may feel slightly concerned that there is a little bit of a space at the points around the edges. This is a good thing. Don't trim those off. You'll be sewing these blocks onto other blocks later, and that space is going to hide in your seam allowance. If you trim to the points, you'll have blunt tipped petals instead of pointy tip petals when you sew these to something else, and the size of the blocks will be a little off. The square size of 12.5" gives you 1/4" seam allowance all the way around that you can use to assemble these as part of something bigger. Trust the process. Have fun! I'm here to answer questions, so don't hesitate to holla if I can help!