Minecraft Block 1-Mooshroom

Finished Block

Recently after uploading pictures of some quilts on public media,  someone asked me why I don't do a tutorial on quilting. Frankly, I hadn't thought about it. I have made approximately 25 quilts in the last 18 months, trying to make each of my grandchildren and children their own quilt.
I saw this idea for piecing a quilt and decided to share it in a tutorial. I'm very excited to share it, so here goes...Months ago I made a Minecraft quilt for a grandson. I drew the pictures on graph paper and then went to work piecing them together.  It was a real chore. I was so relieved to get it done and my grandson loved it.

The problem with the Minecraft quilt is one of my granddaughters said she wanted one also. Ugh, So...I have put it off not wanting to make it again when I found this piecing hint on Pinterest and decided to give it a try.

I laid out the blocks on a piece of fusible featherweight interfacing. I used the graph sheet from the last Minecraft quilt as my pattern. Each block is 2 1/2 inches square. I lined up each row careful not to overlap the squares.

Once the entire pattern was laid out on the interfacing then it was time to trim the interfacing so that there was no interfacing edges beyond the fabric block. 

Then it was time to iron. You hold the iron in one place for 10 seconds so that the pieces will bond to the interfacing.

Moving the iron will move the pieces, so it's important to hold the iron in each place by lifting it to the new spot. Just follow the directions that come with the interfacing.

When I finished pressing, I turned the interfacing over and pressed the back with the iron to ensure that all the pieces were attached well.

 Then turning it on its back with fabric side up, I turned over the first row of the quilt. It bends easily because all the quilt squares are lined up, the interfacing side will be on top.  Let's call these rows the horizontal rows.

Taking 1/8th inch seam allowance, (on my machine it is in the inside edge of my presser foot.)

I sewed the entire row of the quilt block.

This picture shows the second row of stitching. Continue with each row.

This is what it looked like when I was done with all the horizontal rows. This is the interfacing side up and you can see all the seams.

I then cut through the interfacing, (the fabric blocks are lined up so you should be cutting just the interfacing, occasionally I would get a snip or a section of the actual block but that doesn't really matter since its in the seam allowance,) so that I could press open the seams.

Not really sure about pressing the seam allowances open or to the side. Every Quilter has her own methods for how to handle the seam allowances. The blog I saw on this method said to press them open so I did, but usually I press all the allowances to one side or another.

I then turned the quilt block face up again and turned over a row along the other edge or vertical rows. I used 1/8th seam allowance again but you could use 1/4. Most patterns call for a 1/4th seam allowance.

This picture shows several rows sewn. Continue until all the vertical rows are sewn.

This shows the front of the block completed. I did not cut open the interfacing seams on the vertical rows. I just pressed them all in the same direction. Since I used featherweight interfacing it is not too bulky. I can always go back and trim them when I'm putting the sashing on around the blocks if it seems to thick or bulky.

The wonderful thing about this method is all the intersections are exact. I have been sewing for a very long time and getting all the seams to line up exactly is not easy to do and if you look closely at the seams of most of my quilts it just doesn't happen (even with my perfectionism ways). But this one is different, all of the intersections are perfect because of this method.

So give it a try and let me know how it works out.