Week 15: Long Time Gone Sew Along | Pineapple Blocks

One of the best reasons to make this quilt is that it is such a good excuse to make 16 cute 5-inch pineapple blocks with half-inch finished strips! I have absolutely loved making them with the From Marti Michell 1/2-inch Pineapple template set! Every time I use one of our Pineapple template sets, I’m sorry that it took me so long to design a tool that would make it so easy to make such a fabulous block so accurately! We actually make 3 sets based on the 3 different finished strip widths — half-inch, 1-inch and 1-1/4 inch. Each set will make multiple sizes of blocks depending on how many rounds you add. (Click on images for larger views. The bold words in purple are links to other web pages.)

Anyway, all of the instructions are in the booklet that comes with the template set. If you have been following my Long Time Gone blog posts, you know I started my Pineapple blocks as soon as we did the square in a square week. I decided to make all of the centers from the same fabrics.

I cut 1-inch strips on lengthwise grain from all the fabrics I had used and added to the Pineapple strip pot as I went along to keep the fabrics mixed nicely. When I cut, I stacked light and dark strips separately in stacks of four. Then when I cut to length, I had a complete half round of strips for one block. I also worked four blocks at a time.  I loved watching them grow!

I might mention one tip specifically — I love to:

    (a) join the corner triangle with the last strip of the block

    (b) press them open and

    (c) then add the pair to the rest of the block.

Then, when it comes to joining the blocks together, I joined the second row to the first row, then the 3rd row to the pair and “chain-linked” – see my Flying Geese blog, week 11.

It was so neat when the last 9 all came together! I like the secondary pattern where the corners meet, too.

More About the Pineapple Blocks for Long Time Gone

Visit these other Long Time Gone Sew Along blogs, too, for tutorials, contests and other info:

http://www.snipssnippets.ca

http://gnomeangel.com

Use the hash tag #LongTimeGoneSAL to share photos of your blocks on Instagram.

Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell. Copyright 2016 by Jen Kingwell Designs. Available on From Marti Michell website, www.frommarti.com