Christmas in July Block 3-Melanie Dramatic

Wrap it Up Block Merry Christmas in July Quilt-a-long! My goal was to make my block very easy so that anyone could make it. And I wanted to play into the holiday theme without being too overt. So I present you with my Wrap it Up Block! Inspired by Christmas presents themselves. Since we are only making one block for this quilt, the steps I took to make my wonky block are a little different. It still is really easy and fast and could easily be adjusted to make several blocks at once.

Our block, once squared up, measures 7 ½ x 14 ½ inches unfinished.
All seams are ¼ inch.
For those of you with more experience, here is what you’ll need to get started:
• 6 strips 4x11 inches (or so, it’s wonky, so they can vary as you wish)
• 2 strips of white 1 ½ x 22 inches.

Now if you need a little more detail, here are the steps I took.
1. Stack your fat quarter (or scrap) fabrics (I used 3 but you could certainly use more) on top of each other and cut strips 4x22 inches. Since the blocks are wonky, I didn’t worry about getting everything perfectly straight prior to cutting.

2. Cut these strips in half, so you have 6 pieces that measure 4x11inches approximately. We’re not worried about precision here – which is one thing that makes this block so easy!

3. Now cut 2 pieces of white fabric (this will be the ‘ribbon’ you wrap it all together with) that measure 1 ½ x 22 inches.

4. Now simply sew your strips together but position them at an angle to make it wonky. Trim away excess fabric and press seam to one side. Repeat this for all 6 of your strips. (Or however many strips you decide to use.)

5. At this point I straightened up the left and right edges of the block so I could more easily find the center point. Now cut your block in half vertically and sew a strip of the white 1½ inch fabric in between*, pressing seam away from the white fabric.

6. Straighten up the top and bottom edges and once again cut in half, but this time horizontally. Sew the second strip of white in-between the two halves*, taking care to match up the vertical white strip as best you can.

7. Now square your block to measure 7 ½ x 14 ½ inches (unfinished size).

For the example, I made sure that the white strips were centered. This can be tricky if you’re up late sewing at 1:00 am, so I advise you to measure twice (or thrice) before you cut! *Alternatively you could flip flop or rotate the top and bottom so the print fabrics no longer ‘match up’ before you sew the white strip ‘ribbon’ to give it a fun look! Thanks for playing along with us! I can’t wait to see all the quilts!

- Melanie http://www.melaniedramatic.com/