The Jane Stickle Quilt – Block C11

I faced a dilemma with the design of this block. My initial reaction was to appliqué a circle and four quarter circles to a 5-inch unit. But that was most certainly not how Jane did it. She divided the block into quarters and then either appliquéd or curve pieced quarter circles. I’m unsure why Jane chose to divide this block into quarters. Although I think it would be interesting to use a directional fabric to create an interesting effect with the center circle, she did not do that.  So….how should I approach this?

I knew I was not going to appliqué the background fabric on top of the quarter to create the effect of quarter circles. Since I’m doing fusible appliqué, and I’d been disappointed trying this with a previous block, I dismissed this as an option. However, I do believe it’s an option for needle-turn appliqué.

I could have done curved piecing. But, my goodness, there are so many curves…one for each one of those quarter circles. And, that is not one of my strong suits. I don’t mind expanding my boundaries with one or two…but eight, no thanks. 😉

So I  decided to go ahead and divide the blocks into quarters, appliqué quarter circles, and then sew the quarters together. This is certainly more complicated than my original reaction  above, but the result does look more like Jane’s original block.

PDF pattern: Jane Stickle Quilt – C11

Note: Unit A and Unit B in the pattern are for the sashing. I chose to make 5-inch blocks like the original rather than sash 4½-inch blocks. If you prefer to add your sashing when your blocks are all finished, just eliminate the A and B units from my pattern. The center sections will then be 4½ inches finished in size and you can add your sashing later.