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Assembling the Pieces Quilt
from PIECES: A Year in Poems and Quilts  by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Pieces is the theme quilt for the book with the "pieces of the seasons" symbolized by the snowman, bird, butterfly and pumpkin in a patchwork of seasonal color.

I paper-pieced the four symbols, framed them in half-square triangles in a medallion pattern, then filled the rest of the quilt with 652 half-square triangles.

The quilt is approximately 11 x 15 inches, not including the border.  My triangles started out as squares  11/8 inches on a side. When sewn into the quilt each pair of triangles makes a 5/8 inch square. 

Precision in cutting and stitching is important.

Print the patterns and  make the symbols and medallions

Cut at least 1360 11/8 squares. The more you cut the more flexibility you'll have when placing them. 

Arrange them around the medallions, deciding how you want the colors to move through the four seasonal corners. It's difficult to do this precisely since you'll actually be using only half of each square, but you can get a pretty good idea. I tried to put lighter colors next to my darker medallions and darker colors next to the light ones, changing as I moved out from the four medallion centers.

A sheet of foam or flannel, 18 x 24 inches, works well as a layout pad.

To make the triangles, place two squares right sides together. Stitch along diagonal center line. Trim one side to 1/8 inch seam.  Open and press.  I made the triangles as I went, one row or section at a time since it is hard to see exactly how they are going to fit together until you are doing it.

Starting with a medallion square, I stitched the row next to it, sewed it to the square, then stitched the next row, and so on.  Working from the orange square to the green, and outward from the blue and yellow squares, I constructed three units. I sewed these together, then added the corners one row at a time.


Diagram above shows the vertical or horizontal direction of the triangles.  I marked off each section or row with a highlighter as I completed it.

   

To Quilters Page
To Pieces Assembly page with options.
To JPEG Seasonal Symbol Patterns
To PDF Seasonal Symbol Patterns

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