Brimfield Crossroads Quilt Tutorial

Before You Start

This quilt combines 3 quilting skill sets: English Paper Piecing (EPP), applique, and traditional piecing. This tutorial will cover how to assemble this quilt top. It will *not* teach you how to do the EPP nor the applique. The Brimfield Beginnings Starter Kits used in making this quilt contain detailed instructional cards that cover how to do the EPP required for this quilt.

Stag + Thistle Fabric Requirements from Northcott Fabrics

• Deer Ridge in Light Purple Multi 1 FQ (as long as there is a clean cut of one stag with it’s antlers)
• All a Flutter in Lilac Multi 1 yard
• Sew Bountiful in Purple Multi 1/2 yard
• Timberland in Navy 1.25 yards
• Thistle Thicket in Light Turquoise 4″ x 18″
• Thistle Thicket in Purple 9″ x wof
• Wildwood in Pink 4″ x wof
• Background fabric Colorworks Sprout 2.5 yards
• Backing fabric Colorworks Purple 3 yards
• Binding fabric Colorworks Navy 1/2 yard

EPP Requirements for Brimfield Crossroads

• PureGro Bay Leaves 15g(contains Biggie Brim Block single papers pack, Meera Starter Kit (4 blocks + reusable acrylic template), Soleil Starter Kit (4 blocks + 2 reusable acrylic templates), instruction cards for each block, Brimfield Block Pattern Booklet, and papers for 12 additional Meera blocks.

OR

• Brimfield Beginnings PureGro Bay Leaves 15g
• Brimfield Beginnings PureGro Bay Leaves 15g
• PureGro Bay Leaves 15g
• OPTIONAL PureGro Bay Leaves 15g (recommended if you’re going to use the orange peels in your Biggie Brim block)
• (OPTIONAL Meera Block Bulk Papers Kit – see explanation below.)

If you decide not to purchase the PureGro Bay Leaves 15g, then we recommend reading on and purchasing items al la carte, depending on whether you want to trace your own papers, or buy a bulk pack and end up with more than what you need.

This quilt uses a brand new upsized Brimfield Block called “Biggie Brim” and 2 different Brimfield Beginnings EPP blocks: PureGro Bay Leaves 15g and PureGro Bay Leaves 15g. For this quilt, we left out the orange peels in the Biggie Brim block to maximize the space within the center of the block to accommodate the stag and antlers on the banner fabric. We recommend purchasing one single pack of the Biggie Brim and using those papers to trace your fabric (remembering to add your own seam allowance.) If you think you’ll make more Biggie Brims in the future, we do have the window acrylics available which allow you to trace both fabric + seam allowance and the paper shapes. We also recommend purchasing the PureGro Bay Leaves 15g if you intend to include the orange peels within your Biggie Brim block.

The starter kits for both PureGro Bay Leaves 15gand PureGro Bay Leaves 15g contain the papers to make (4) 7″ blocks, window acrylic template(s), and an instructional card that explains how to hand stitch each EPP block. In order to make this particular quilt, you will need 12 more Meera papers than what the starter kit provides (16 in total.) There are 2 solutions. Since the Starter Kits contain a “window” acrylic template, you have the ability not only to fussycut and audition fabric with those templates, but you also have the ability to trace additional Meera Block papers. If you do not wish to trace additional papers, you can purchase PureGro Bay Leaves 15g separately (they yield 48 Meera blocks.)

Following the instructions included in your Meera and Soleil starter kits, make 16 Meera Blocks and 4 Soleil Blocks. The Meera blocks are cut from the Timberland fabric in the navy color way. Put the 16 Meera Blocks into 4 groups of 4 and stitch together, as shown below. We will call these groups of 4 Meera Blocks sewn together “quads”. Continue to follow the instructions about removing the papers and pressing your blocks and set aside.

For the Biggie Brim block, please follow the instructions included in the Brimfield Block pattern Instructional booklet. Do not prepare the background squares as you will not be using them in this layout. Also, in our example for this quilt, we left out the orange peels. Even though the scale of the original Brimfield Block is smaller, the concept for putting the block together is the same. If you are not using the orange peels, stitch together the Biggie Brim in 4 sections: one fat house flanked by a small house on each side. Join those sections together with a tall house in between. The Biggie Brim is constructed from the Thistle Thicket fabric in the purple color way. Once complete, press the block well, pop out the papers and then press again (tucking in any tails towards the inside of the EPP.) Center your Biggie Brim over a stag head from the Deer Ridge fabric and use Roxanne’s glue to temporarily hold the block in place. You are only using the Roxanne’s glue on the inside perimeter of the circle of the Biggie Brim (do not glue the house-shaped points of the outside perimeter.) Heat set with an iron. Then, hand or machine appliquéing the block along the inside circle only. Set the Biggie Brim aside with the other EPP blocks.

Following the instructional card included included with your Soleil starter kit, construct 4 Soleil blocks, paying attention to the fussy cutting in the picture below. We used the Sew Bountiful fabric in purple alternating with the Wildwood fabric in pink to make the four Soleil blocks. Like the other EPP blocks so far, press your block with the papers inside, remove the papers and then press again tucking in any tails towards the inside / underneath your block.

Piecing the Octagon

We’d like to give special thanks to Courtney Reed @sewthishappened who did all the quilt math and pieced the octagon for us! Below is her part of the tutorial in her own voice and graphics.

Once you have all your fabric cut, you want to attach your background fabric strips to the setting triangles right sides together on the LONGEST SIDE. Do this to all your setting triangles using a standard 1/4 seam allowance. At this stage you can trim off the excess background fabric or trim once top is complete.

Now sew together on of your setting triangle pieces to the 19”x16” longest side. Right sides together as shown below. then sew another setting triangle to the botom of that new unit.

Thank you Courtney!

Applique your EPP to the Octagon

So, remember those Meera and Soleil blocks you set aside earlier? It’s applique time!

You should have 4 Meera Block “quads” that measure 14″ square, one Biggie Brim with the stag head already appliquéd to the center, and 4 individual Soleil Blocks that measure 7″ across their diameter. Set the Soleil Blocks and Biggie Brim aside.

Going with one Meera block quad at a time, put some Roxanne Glue on the back side of the block in dots all around the outer perimeter as well as along the inside ovals (the negative spaces that develops inside the Meera Block quads). Very carefully center your Meera Block quad onto the space between 2 of the setting triangles of your octagon. See picture below (but imagine it without the Soleil Blocks on top.) The glue is temporary and you can move it if it seems “off”. We actually just eyeballed it. Then take your newly glue basted Meera Block quad over to your hot iron and heat set the applique. We decided to do a combination of machine and hand applique for attaching our Meera Block quad to the octagon. We recommend appliquéing quad after each glue basting, one at a time (instead of glue basting all 4 and then appliquéing all 4.)

After all 4 Meera Block quads have been appliquéd down onto the octagon, *carefully* cut away the background fabric from behind the applique. Go slowly and be careful not to poke your snips through to the front of your applique.

Next, just like you did with your Biggie Brim block, put dabs of Roxanne glue onto the back inside perimeter of your Soleil Block and center over the light turquoise “Thistle Thicket” fabric. Heat set and then applique the center of the Soleil block to the Thistle Thicket. You are only stitching the inside circle part, not the tips of the house pieces. Do this for the remaining three Soleil blocks.

Take your newly appliquéd Soleil blocks and, going one block at a time, center one over the Meera Block Quad (as shown in the picture above.) Just like in previous steps, apply dabs of Roxanne glue to the outside perimeter of the Soleil block and then heat set with a hot iron and either machine or hand applique the Soleil Block down. Do this 3 more times. Cut away the background fabric from underneath the Soleil blocks (yes, you will actually be cutting away portions of your Meera block EPP.)

Once all Soleil blocks and Meera blocks are appliquéd down, it is time to center and applique your Biggie Brim to the center of your octagon. Afterwards, cut away the fabric from underneath the Biggie Brim. Now it is time to make the quilt sandwich and quilt as desired!

We would like to thank Brett for letting us play with his Stag and Thistle fabric collection. We feel like we had a chance to visit his magical childhood home in British Columbia, Canada. We would also like to thank Carey Fitch of Carey On Quilting for contributing to some of the quilting on this quilt.