Guest Block Elaine...with a....3 D Twisty Tube....gotta love it...

Hi! It's me - The Truffle Queen, ie, Elaine! First of all - thank you, thank you, thank you Madame Samm for organizing yet ANOTHER block tutorial! When does she sleep?!!! Anyhooooo, I'm the one who did the paper pieced (PP) candy corn using freezer paper (FP). Well - I decided to do something a little different this time! Hope you enjoy it! I also hope you are loving the FP- PP method and have used it many times by now!  With winter coming on very quickly - it's such fun to turn on the TV and just sew, sew, sew! Heat up some apple cider - drop in a cinnamon stick - doesn't get much better!! Maybe some fudge to nibble on! or TRUFFLES!! Well - enough - here's my twist on a 3-D twisty tube block!!!

FP= freezer paper PP = paper piecing

3-D Twisty tube!!

For the pattern piece. I used a manilla folder because it was handy but you can use whatever is good for you!!

Cut 1 square - 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" (use your junky rotary cutter when you're cutting the folder for the pattern!!)

1. Draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner.

2. Measure 2" from each corner (on the drawn line) and mark it with a dot big enough to see!!

3. Using a quilting ruler with a 1" square grid - draw a line across the 2" mark from side to side - making sure your ruler line stays on the drawn diagonal line! Do this at the other end, too!

It will look like this!!

Now cut on the lines you just drew.  The center part is your pattern piece for the twisty tube piece!!  You can toss the other two pieces in the garbage!

With two contrasting fabrics cut two 5 1/2" squares - lay the pattern piece on the wrong side of the lightest of the two fabrics and draw the two lines. Sew 1/4" on each side of the two drawn lines. (The original pattern I found only had you sew on one side of the line and you ended up with a lot of triangles. If you sew that extra line, you get a little half-square triangle you can use in the border or whatever!!)

Now that you have sewn and cut - you need to turn the "tube" right-side out and press the seams!!

Cut a square (4 1/2") of fabric that will contrast with the twisty tube. Pin one end of the tube to a corner of the square. Sew a narrow seam on both sides of the corner of the tube so that when you piece the blocks these stitches will be hidden in the 1/4" seam allowance. It's best to back stitch at the both ends because when you piece the blocks the stitches want to come out!!

Twist the tube once and pin and sew the opposite end like you did in the above step! As you can see in this photo - one of the twists is "twistier" than the other!! The one in the upper left hand corner has a double twist (clockwise) and the one on the lower right has one twist! You can decide which you like better - with one twist you see both of the fabrics equally - with the double twist you don't see much of the contrasting fabric! Your choice!!

You can have the twists in every other block or just a few scattered over the quilt - turn some one way - and some the other way!

This is a great baby quilt! They can grab onto a twisty tube and drag it around with them or just hold onto when they're sound asleep! Sweet, huh?!

Of course, you could make them much bigger - just do a little math! If I decide to do that - I think I'll ask my resident rocket scientist! You know the expression "it isn't rocket science"... well sometimes there are quilting patterns that NEED a rocket scientist to figure them out!!  Hope this block doesn't fit in THAT category!!  I like the scrappy look - but this could be a "controlled" design quilt - for you "control" quilters! 

Time for some cider and an old "Closer" repeat on the TV!!