Tree of Life, Block 1

Here is my selection of fabric for the first block. Ros


2 greens (you can choose more if you like)
1 blue
1 brown
1 red
plus plain calico for the background (not shown)


Prepare the pieces and you will end up with a selection looking something like this.


Mark one of the large green fabrics with both cutting and sewing lines. Sew along the dashed lines.


Cut along the straight lines from one corner to the other.


Cut horizontally and vertically.


You will have 8 little "half square triangles" which need to be opened up carefully and pressed. Take care not to stretch the edges and press the fabric towards the darker colour (see the square in the bottom right hand corner).


Trim the half square triangle to 2 1/4".


With the red fabric and the calico we are going to make more half square triangles, but with just one diagonal seam this time.


Again sew on dashed lines and cut on the solid line.


Open out and press carefully. Trim the red half square triangles as before to 2 1/4".


At the end of Step 4 you should have all these beautiful little triangles. It is really important that these are accurate!


With the brown square, cut in half on the diagonal.


Sew one triangle to the calico rectangle with (barely) a 1/4" of the triangle extending beyond the bottom edge.

Carefully align the ruler along the top diagonal edge and trim off excess background (discard this piece).


Then do the same with the other piece - but a mirror image of the first piece.


They should look like this.


Take the brown rectangular trunk section and sew between the two halves aligning along the bottom edge.


Take the blue triangle and cut in half diagonally. You will only require one of these triangles for this block.


Align carefully and sew into place.


Carefully trim away the top of the block as shown on the instructions. Then repeat the above step for the green square (triangle).


And it will look something like this.


Take the long strip of calico and cut into lengths (2 of each)
2 1/4"
4" and
9 1/4"


Assemble and sew together the branch sections.


and again with the second one.


The instructions have a slight fault in that one of the dark green triangles should have been a light one (1st triangle, second row), so this I had to correct later.


Assemble this block and sew together.


Assemble these strips and sew together.


Assemble all the blocks and sew together as shown in the instructions. I found that some of my seams were facing in the wrong direction when it came to sewing them together. I carefully nicked the seam and resewed the tiny section again. This prevented really fat, ugly seams which would have spoiled all the previous hard work.


Here is my finished block! Phew!!

I hope you enjoyed this. It is quite straightforward and the original instructions are very good. But don't try to rush or take corners otherwise you will regret it!

Here is Tessa's finished block!

"I used Thangles which makes a 2" finished half square triangle....the Tree of Life is not made of 2" squares by the pattern....so my block is actually 16" and not the stated 14". Tessa

Take a little time to read the Psalm which accompanies the block! The Psalms were the songbook of Israel and are truly beautiful!

Ros