The Whimsical Workshop Studio: Check out Our Free Block for Block Mania Blog Hop A Present from Penny

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Check out Our Free Block for Block Mania Blog Hop A Present from Penny

We're back with another great block for the Block Mania Blog Hop! If you're new to this Blog Hop, each month a group of top designers in the quilting industry create a free 12” block. Everyone uses the same theme and color palette, and posts their patterns on the first Tuesday of the month. You then get to hop from blog to blog, learning more about each designer and collecting an assortment of free block patterns.

This month's theme is "Winter Celebration" and I'm excited to share our new block with you: A Present from Penny. The pattern is available here.

Our September and October blocks, “Batty and Happy” and “We Are Family", are still available as free downloads for the entire month of November 2020. Our Block Mania Blog Hops blocks are available as free downloads for their debut for two months. Afterwards, they're listed for sale at $5.00 each for a digital download. So be sure to download your free pattern today!

To accompany this free block, I've also created a video tutorial for you. It covers how to mark, cut and sew an organic curved background, perfect for appliqué blocks, as well as how to embellish the tree. Organic curve piecing is easy to do and so forgiving. If you have not done this technique before, never fear, I walk you through it in the video

To start, let's cut and sew our curved background so that our adorable penguin has a place to stand. Just pin the two pieces together, draw a curvy line, cut and sew. And there you go - now you have a curved background!

Once all of our pieces cut and ready for assembly, we can set up our appliqué pressing sheet and placement drawing to put our pieces together. Personally, I like to cut my pieces using an SVG File with my Cricut Maker. If you also have a Cricut and want the convenience of being able to use it to cut out your pieces, you can purchase our SVG file on Etsy or our website. But don't worry if you don't have a Cricut, you can definitely make this block without it!

And now that our block is assembled, let's pick our favorite Aurifil threads for the finishing stitch and move to the sewing machine.

In the video, I've included my favorite trick for using a machine stitch that looks like embroidery to embellish the tree. If you try it out, let me know if you like it!