Pieceful Patchwork Wall Hanging - December

December’s Pieceful Patchwork brings two holiday blocks — a wrapped present with a pieced bow, and a simple stepped tree. Both are built almost entirely from one technique, sew-and-flip, which makes this a good month for practicing it properly and for meeting the tool that makes it dramatically faster.

In this video, you'll learn:

• Sew-and-flip two ways: the familiar draw-sew-trim method, and a faster one that skips both the drawing and the trimming.
• How to use a Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper Tool, including which marks line up where.
• A marking trick that tells you exactly where your quarter-inch seam has to land to hit a point.
• Which pressing direction to choose when a seam has a point on one side.
• A pinning habit that costs seconds and saves minutes with the seam ripper.

Check the links for everything you need.

INTRODUCTION

Both blocks finish at 12.5", and both lean on sew-and-flip corners rather than any tricky piecing. Before starting, make all your cuts from the cutting instructions and label every piece as you go. These blocks use lettered pieces from A right through to O, and once a dozen similar rectangles are laid out on the table, labels are the difference between reaching confidently and measuring again.

1. SEW-AND-FLIP, TWO WAYS

Sew-and-flip turns a square into a triangle on the corner of another piece. The traditional method is (3) steps:

1. Draw a line corner to corner across the square with a Frixion Clicker Pens against a small ruler.
2. Sew directly on that line.
3. Trim the excess back to a quarter inch, then press.

That work well, but drawing lines gets tedious quickly when a block calls for a dozen of them. A Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper Tool removes two of those three steps by cutting the waste away first:

1. Lay the square right sides together on its rectangle as usual.
2. Find the mark on the clipper matching your square’s size — the 2" mark for a 2" square, the 3" mark for a 3" square — and set it along the bottom edge of the square.
3. Line the small vertical mark on the right up with the edge of the fabric. When both marks are right, the top edge sits perfectly even.
4. Cut along the clipper. The diagonal edge you’re cutting against represents your sewing line.
5. Pin, then sew a quarter-inch seam on what’s left, corner to corner. Press.

No line drawn, and nothing to trim afterward — the waste came off before you ever sat down at the machine. Two practical notes: turn your work so the cutting side falls on your dominant hand before you reach for the rotary cutter, and pin after clipping, because the cut leaves you with a bias edge that will stretch if you let it.

2. THE PRESENT BLOCK

The present is built in parts: a bow on top, the gift below it, and a shadowed side panel that gives the whole thing dimension.

1. Sew-and-flip an A square onto a B rectangle, then a second square on the opposite corner, producing a small flying geese unit. Add a C unit to each side to complete the bow.
2. Use the same technique with an E square and two D squares to make the second bow.
3. Make the top of the present, joining an F rectangle to an E square, then add a G rectangle to the side.
4. Sew two H rectangles to an I rectangle and make (2) of these units, one for each side, then set a J rectangle in the center as the ribbon to make the gift body.
5. Join a K, an L, and an M at the bottom against the background. This is what sets the present up and gives it depth — and the K becomes the small piece of ribbon that peeks out on the far side.
6. Add N up the side and O across the top to bring the block to 12.5", pressing toward the spacers.

Throughout, press toward the ribbon pieces. That does two jobs at once: it presses away from the points, which keeps them sharp, and it lets the ribbon stand up slightly against the background so it reads as ribbon rather than as another patch.

3. HITTING YOUR POINTS EXACTLY

When you join a unit with a pieced point to anything else, the question is always whether your quarter inch will land where the point actually is. There’s a simple way to know rather than hope.

Mark the point with an X. Find where your seams cross on the wrong side and mark that spot with a small X using a Frixion Clicker Pen. Now sew so your quarter inch runs straight through the middle of that X — if it does, you’ve hit the point exactly. It turns an invisible target into a visible one.

Sew from whichever side has the points you need to watch, even if that’s the side with more seams on it. Seeing the target matters more than avoiding bulk.

Pinning deserves its own small system here:

1. Pin the far end first. Two corners will always try to walk away from each other, and discovering that at the end of a seam means stopping to readjust.
2. Pin the beginning next.
3. Center any bow or ribbon visually and pin it so it stays put as the foot approaches.
4. Check the back for seam allowances that will flip the wrong way as you cross them, and pin those down too.

It’s faster to pin than to rip. A seam allowance that flips as you sew over it means stopping, unpicking, and re-sewing — call it thirty to forty-five seconds. Putting a pin in it first takes about two. The arithmetic never changes, and it’s worth remembering every time you’re tempted to skip it.

4. THE TREE BLOCK

The tree is the simpler of the two, and it’s the same technique repeated at different scales.

1. Each branch row is one rectangle with a sew-and-flip square at each end — an A square onto a B rectangle, clipped with the Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper Tool, pinned, and sewn corner to corner.
2. Press each row, then add spacer rectangles to the ends to set the row’s width. The pairs work through the alphabet: C first, then D and E, F and G, H and I — each row a little wider than the last.
3. Press away from the points every time.
4. For the trunk, join (2) J pieces to a K, pressing toward the dark so the trunk stands out at the base of the tree.
5. Join the rows, marking the points with an X as before and sewing through the center of each. Pin the flippable seams firmly — there are more of them by now.

One small thing worth doing before you press: peel off any labels still stuck to your pieces. A sticker melted onto the sole of your iron is a tedious problem to solve.

Two blocks, one technique, and a tool that turns three steps into one. What carries over from this month isn’t really the present or the tree — it’s the habit of marking your points before you sew and pinning the seams that would otherwise flip, which is what makes patchwork land where you meant it to.

Pick up a Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper Tool, Guidelines Seam Guides, and any other notions you need, browse our rulers for the cutting, and explore our many other Riley Blake Designs Christmas fabrics.

For personal use only, not for commercial production. No part of this pattern may be reproduced, shared, or distributed in any form unless given express written consent by Shabby Fabrics. Not to be used with any online classes or video tutorials other than the official Shabby Fabrics tutorial. All designs, photographs, and images are protected by federal copyright law. All rights reserved.