Cleopatra's Fan Test Block Completed: Construction + Pressing Plan

Remember this blog post from mid-March, when I was contemplating whether or not to make a Cleopatra's Fan quilt?  You can catch up here if you missed that one.  I decided to make a test block with my AccuQuilt GO! 12" Cleopatra's Fan BOB (Block On Board) die cutter (this post contains affiliate links) and, although this was fiddly and slow-going to piece, I like how it turned out.  I was unsure about the large 12" block scale initially, but I really like it paired with large scale print fabrics like this scrap of older OOP (out of print) Kaffe Fassett floral.  Isn't this fun?

12 inch Cleopatra's Fan Test Block Completed

First, my thoughts on cutting the fabric patches out with the AccuQuilt die, because as I explained in my earlier post, there are multiple different options for cutting out this block.  Due to the orientation of the fabric shapes on the BOB die, I needed strips of each fabric cut PARALLEL to my selvages, which caused me to mess up and miscut the violet fabric I originally planned to use in place of the green solid.  I was on autopilot, selvages together, then selvages to the fold and cut off a slice, but that would have resulted in feeding the slightly stretchy crosswise grain through the die cutter, and my patches from that color would likely have stretched during cutting and come out slightly too small in one direction.  Following AccuQuilt's directions about fabric grain really does make a difference, I've found.  The other thing I knew I would need to do was to heavily starch that flimsy, filmy Kaffe Fassett print fabric before feeding it through the cutting machine.  Even with the grain oriented correctly, that fabric still was unlikely to behave without being starched with old school Niagara Spray Starch Plus.  These days I'm more likely to be using   for pressing seams as they're sewn and for pressing finished blocks, but nothing beats the real starch like Grandma used when it comes to a slippery fabric that doesn't cooperate.

Rear View: The Pressing Plan

The PDF instructions for assembling the Cleopatra's Fan block don't say anything about how the seams should be pressed.  I did my online research and found a few different tutorials, but in addition to reading them I scrutinized the accompanying photos.  Lots of people are saying to just press ALL the seams open with this block -- and lots of those tutorials show photos of finished blocks with misaligned seam intersections and wavy stretched fabric edges.  

Tilda Scrappy Celebration, New Sewing Chair + Pretty Things Blooming in Florida

Good morning and Happy Friday!  I finally got around to piecing my backing for the Deco quilt a few days ago, packed it up on a hanger with the quilt top, and put it in the Quilt Purgatory Closet to marinate (and atone for its sins) while it awaits its turn on the long arm for quilting.  Finishing the Deco backing means that I can turn my attention to other projects at LONG last, and I decided that piecing six more blocks for my Tilda Scrappy Celebration quilt would be a nice palette cleanser.  

Three Blocks with Solid Aqua

Three Blocks with Stash Substitution Fabric

I had one fat eighth of aqua Tilda Solid fabric, and that was only enough for three of the six blocks I wanted to make, so I dug around in my stash and found a scrap of a print fabric that looks just as nice.  To my eye, this kind of "make do" substitution adds interest to the finished quilt, so each block that goes into the quilt will feature six identical, or nearly identical blocks depending on how much I have of each fabric I want to use.  It always feels good to pull something out of the Deep Stash and put it into a quilt!

Ready to Piece Some Y-Seam Blocks!

Scrappy Celebration was a 2023 QAL (Quilt-Along) designed by Lissa Alexander and published in American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.  The pattern is available for sale here on the APQ Shop web site, but I don't have the pattern -- I just went off the photos I saw online and did my own thing in EQ8 software as usual, and for this particular block I decided I preferred to piece the block with two chisel shapes and a Y-seam in the aqua fabric instead of with a rectangle and a square.  I printed a template onto green card stock paper from EQ8 and that's what I used to cut my aqua patches.  So there are my blocks (above photo), ready to be sewn!  

Cutting Out Chisel Patches with my Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Scissors