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FRACTURED MAPLE LEAF

BRING TO CLASS

  • Sewing machine, power cord, new needle (any size you like to piece with), thread, newly wound bobbin, ¼” presser foot, and an all-purpose foot for piecing.

  • Seam ripper (just in case)

  • Rotary cutter with a new blade

  • 9x12 or similar size cutting mat

  • Invisible scotch tape

  • Paper and fabric scissors

  • Add A Quarter ruler (the longer the better)

  • Highlighter (Pink, green, blue, orange, but NOT yellow)

  • Pen and/or pencil,

  • Seam roller or wooden iron, or 2 good thumb nails for finger pressing😊

  • Your fabric

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For Virtual Classes Only:

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NOW, LET'S TALK FABRIC

 

As we now know, there are no right or wrong choices for the leaves.  The colors are up to you as long as they’re scrappy.

 

Now for the background fabric.  The background color must be a color that makes the leaves stand out.  The more contrast between the leaves and the background, the sharper the quilt will look.  Also, try to find a background fabric that has some sort of pattern or print that will help disguise the seam lines and makes the background seem more like one piece of fabric if you choose to use the background fabric for sashing and borders.

Machine Pieced and Quilted by
Bette Belanger
 

CUTTING SPECS 

Cutting Specs (for a simple 9 Leaf wall hanging):

 

The Leaves:

 

You’ll need a large or small assortment of colored scraps for the leaves in whichever colorway you’ve chosen.  The more variety of fabrics, the more interesting your leaves will be.  And you might even be able to use up some of your small scraps.  Also, you’ll want different color fabric that you can use for the stem. 

 

Background, Sashing and Border Fabric:

 

After you decide on a background fabric, which should be in high contrast to the leaf fabrics, this is what you’ll cut from it.  You’re cutting the strips WOF (width of fabric) assuming 42” of useable fabric:

 

From the Background Fabric: (for the leaf blocks)

20" of fabric should be enough for the leaf blocks

 

Cut one strip 3 ½”.  Cut the strip into nine 3 ½” squares.  (Bring extra fabric to class)

Cut three 4” strips.  Cut the strip into twenty-seven 4” squares.  Then cut the squares in half diagonally to end up with fifty-four half-square triangles. (Bring extra fabric to class)

For the stems cut nine pieces 1 ¼” x 5 ½”

 

For the Sashing and Borders: (Start with at least ½ yard)

 

Here, you can decide to use a completely different color than your background for the leaves and it will look like your leaves are framed like window panes.

 

Or you can use your background fabric and it will look like the leaves are floating.

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                  Window Pane                             Floating

                           

 

Whichever design you go with, you’ll need six 2” strips of fabric.   They will be cut to size once the leaf blocks are finished.   You probably want to have ½ yard. 

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Table Runner

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"Father Nature"
36" x 16"

I started this table runner on Friday at noon.  By dinnertime, the top was done!  Spent a couple of hours on Saturday making the sandwich and ditch quilting around each of the leaves.  Put the binding on Monday morning and it was done by 9:00.  All in all it took about 8 hours total.

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I used the Grunge metallic fabric in semi-traditional colors for the leaves and teal for the background.  It's both a seasonal runner or a year-round small wall hanging.  I can't wait to see what you do.

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For the stems:

 

Cut three 1-1/4" x 5-1/2" rectangles

 

For the leaves:

 

Lots of scraps in any color, texture or print you'd like.   Each leaf has 18 pieces of all sizes and shapes.  Make the leaves out of the same fabrics or make each leaf  different.  It's your world.

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For the leaf backgrounds:

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Cut three 3 ½” squares.

 

Cut one 4” strip.  Cut the strip into nine 4” squares.  Then cut the squares in half diagonally to end up with eighteen half-square triangles. (Bring extra fabric to class)

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For the background:

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The wonderful thing about this table runner is that you can make it any size you'd like.  Got a long table?  Make 4 or 5 leaves.  Got a smaller table?  Reduce the size of your borders.  The cutting specs provided are for the exact sized table runner that I made.  Please feel free to make it any size you want. Again, it's your world.

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For the Sashing and Borders: 

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Cut one 2-1/2" strip for the sashing.  Cut two 4" strips for the borders.  

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"Winston's Heaven"
30" x 30"
Our Class Project

It’s time to break out your scraps, fat quarters and jelly rolls because each leaf is made up of mostly small scraps of fabric!  The Fractured Maple Leaf lends itself to unlimited possibilities.  The leaves can be colored for any season…greens, golds, oranges or combinations of colors.  The choice is yours.  This pattern is also great for your beautiful batiks.  Each leaf can have all different fabrics and no two leaves need to be the same.  Choose the colorway you want and start digging for fabric.  The Fractured Maple Leaf quilt top can be put together in any design you’d like, but for this class we’ll be making a 9-leaf wall hanging with sashing and borders.  Each leaf block measures 8” x 8” (finished) and the wall hanging measures about 30”x30”.

In this workshop we’ll take the mystery out of:

The basics of paper piecing

The "No More Tears"© Method

Fractured Maple Leaf basics

Precise block and quilt top construction

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