I’ve been Pam Rocco’s regular editor for her “Words to Quilt By” column and free web patterns for over four years now, and have always looked forward to the challenge of writing patterns for her often improvisational and always unique quilts. I never fail to learn something new, and I usually end up wanting to go home and start making my own version.
Ring Around the Rosy, 58″ x 87″, by Pam Rocco
When it came time to write the pattern for Ring Around the Rosy, the free web pattern published in conjunction with our August/September 2016 issue, I figured out pretty quickly that sewing up my own version was going to be required, not optional. I’ll be honest: this quilt had me a little stumped the first time I looked at it. How exactly did she do that?
Now, I could have emailed Pam and asked her to tell me how she made her block, but where’s the challenge in that? In her notes she said that she’d figured out how to make it based on a quilt she’d seen, so by gum, I decided I would also figure out how to make it.
There was more involved than just the personal ego gratification I would get by figuring it out on my own. Because I had no prior experience making or writing a pattern for a block like this, I wanted to be certain that the pattern I wrote was something I could be assured would work, both mathematically and in fabric.
About that math: I don’t remember exactly how I initially approached the dimensions of the block or what formula I based it on (it’s been a few months since I did it), but suffice it to say I was wrong the first time. I figured out I was using incorrect measurements pretty much as soon as I started cutting fabric, but I finished that first block anyway because I still wanted to test the technique itself.
first attempt at Ring Around the Rosy block
Above is the first octagon I cut by trimming the corners from a square piece of fabric. Already you can see how much longer the diagonal sides are than the vertical and horizontal sides. Still, I plugged onward.
Here are some photos I took of the block as I made it that demonstrate the technique, accompanied by general comments for a quick tutorial. For full instructions, be sure to download the pdf of the pattern.
first strip stitched on and pressed open
Add your first strip to one side of the octagon but stop stitching about an inch away from the bottom corner of the octagon; you will need to finish this partial seam later in order to get all the seams going in a consistent direction. Press the strip open.
trim one end of the strip
Because the strips are added in a counterclockwise fashion, trim the top of the strip even with the raw edge of the adjacent left side of the octagon. Leave the tail of the strip untrimmed.
second strip stitched and pressed open
Stitch a second strip to that adjacent left side from raw edge to raw edge (no more partial seams from here on out) and trim the top of the strip even with next adjacent left side. If you want, you can also trim the tail of the second strip even with the unit now or wait to deal with the tails all at once after all the strips are stitched on — your choice.
Add strips 3-8 in the same way. The only difference with adding strip #8 is that you’ll need to pull the tail of the first strip out of the way so it doesn’t get stitched down or trimmed when you add strip #8 (hence the partial seam). After you’ve trimmed the top of strip #8, you can finish the partial seam of strip #1, stitching it to strip #8. After you’ve trimmed all those tails, no one will be able to tell which strip you added first.
the completed block
Now all you have to do is add half-square triangles to the corners (and no, the corners you trimmed from the square to begin with won’t work as they’ll be too small) et voilà! Your block is done!
Once I had the technique under my belt, all I had to do was finesse the math to get the sides of the octagon more equal in length.
octagon #2
My second attempt was “close enough for rock n’ roll” but not quite close enough for publication; the measurements I used to make the third version are what ended up in the pattern.
Block #3
And then, because I had one more colorway of that tropical print (from Robert Kaufman Fabrics) and because I was having fun, I made a fourth block for good measure.
Placemats!
A few weeks later I turned my four blocks into a set of quilted placemats for everyday use by adding coordinating strips of Indah Solids from Hoffman along the left sides. You may be able to tell that the placemat made with my first test block, seen at the top of the photo, is a bit smaller than the others. If I was trying to make a quilt with them it might have mattered, but as individual placemats, no one ever needs to know.
I may still make a full quilt using this block. It’s a large one, finishing at 14.5″, which makes it a great option for large-scale prints that you want to showcase.
While it’s true that Pam Rocco frequently works improvisationally, that doesn’t mean she works haphazardly. In Ring Around the Rosy, she paid close attention to fussy cutting a few prints and to her directional fabrics. Here’s a tip for cutting half-square triangles from directional fabrics to make block corners: with the squares oriented so the print is pointing “up” or away from you, cut the first square on one diagonal, then cut the second square on the opposite diagonal. This way you’ll have four corner triangles that you can arrange so the print is oriented consistently.
The full free pattern for Ring Around the Rosy is available from the Quilters Newsletter website; click here to download the pdf. To read Pam’s full column, be sure to get your copy of the August/September 2016 issue of QN, available in print and digital editions, as well as on newsstands, in bookstores and quilt shops.
As always, to find out about Quilters Newsletter’s giveaways, quilting news, tips, techniques and more, visit us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, QNNtv.com and our website. Plus, see Web Seminars on QuiltAndSewShop.com and classes, courses and workshops on Craft Daily.com and CraftOnlineUniversity.com.
