Sew your own fruity quilt!

Sew your own fruity quilt!

Make your own fruit salad of blocks with Jo Hart's fruit quilt block patterns!

Try Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine for and save over 45%!

Published: January 1, 2022 at 8:36 am

We're feeling fruity with Jo Hart's new fruit quilt blocks! Take to your stash of blenders and piece up a cocktail of Jo's Foundation Paper Pieced quilt blocks. There's a pineapple, pear, cherry, orange, and banana block so if you sew them together you'll have one tasty fruit quilt. If a fruit quilt isn't for you then you could turn your blocks into pouches, cushions, bags... the possibilities are endless. Jo's fruit quilt blocks were originally in issue 88 of Love Patchwork & Quilting. Pick up a copy of their latest issue for more funky quilting projects. If you're new to the world of quilting don't worry. Just head over to our quilting for beginners guide for more help with technique and also discover the best sewing machine for quilting or best long arm quilting machines in our round-ups. Now it's over to Jo for her fruit quilt blocks.

You will need:

  • Background fabric: ¾yds
  • A selection of scraps or fat eighths for fruits
  • One (1) copy each of Banana (Sections A–B), Cherry (Sections A–K), Orange (Sections A–F), Pear (Sections A–H), Pineapple (Sections A–D) FPP templates. Find the templates from Love Patchwork & Quilting's templates issue 88.

Finished Size

  • 7½ in square

Notes

  • Seam allowances are ¼in, unless otherwise noted.
  • Press seams to one side, unless otherwise instructed.
  • Press fabrics well before cutting.
  • FPP = Foundation Paper Piecing.
  • For FPP, set your stitch length to 1.5.
  • FPP templates include seam allowance around the outer edges only.
  • Fabrics supplied by Craft Cotton Co. (craftcotton.com)

Fruit quilt blocks

You will need:

  • Fabric
  • Templates

Piecing the pineapple block

Step 1

Using the pineapple templates as a guide, cut the fabric pieces for each section of the FPP templates, making sure that the fabric pieces will be at least ¼in larger than the section they will cover, all the way around.

Step 2

Cut each section of your pineapple templates A–D roughly, just outside the dashed lines. Shorten your stitch length on your machine to approx 1.5. This will make tearing off the paper at the end easier.

Step 3

fruit quilt block figure a
On the unprinted side of Section A, place a small dot of washable glue in the centre of Section 1A. Place the corresponding fabric piece on top, right side up, ensuring the whole of Section 1A is covered, plus at least ¼in all the way around (Fig A).

Step 4

fruit quilt block figure b
Turn your template back over and fold along the solid line between Sections 1A and 2A. Trim the edge of the fabric to ¼ in beyond the folded paper, being careful not to cut into the paper (Fig B).

Step 5

fruit quilt block figure a c
Unfold the template, place the Section 2 fabric piece right side down on top of the Section 1 piece, matching up raw edges on the side where Sections 1 and 2 will be joined. Make sure that when folded back along the seam line, the whole of Section 2 will be covered by the fabric plus at least ¼ in all around the edges (Fig C). Pin the fabric piece into place.

Step 6

fruit quilt block figure d

With the printed side of the template facing right side up, carefully sew along the line between Sections 1 and 2, starting and ending two or three stitches beyond the printed line (Fig D).

fruit quilt block figure e
Press the fabric open (Fig E).

Step 7

fruit quilt block figure f
Repeat step 4 to trim the fabric ¼ in beyond the line between Sections 2A and 3A (Fig F). Add the 3A fabric following steps 5–6. Continue piecing the rest of the template Section A in the same way, adding the remaining fabric sections in numerical order.

Step 8

fruit quilt block figure h
Piece templates Section B, C and D following the process in steps 3–7. Once all sections are complete, trim along the outer dashed line (Fig G–H).
fruit quilt block figure g

Step 9

Align the template Sections A and B along the raw edges and sew together. Carefully remove the paper from the seam allowance only and press the seam open. Repeat to sew Section C to D. Then sew AB to CD, ensuring to neatly align seam allowances each time.

Step 10

fruit quilt block pineapple block
Press the block. Remove the paper from the back of the block, tearing along the seam lines. If necessary, trim the block to 7½ in square.

Piecing the banana

Step 1

fruit quilt block banana
Follow steps 1–7 to sew each of the Banana template Sections A and B.

Step 2

Sew the two sections together, pressing the seam open. Finish the banana block as in step 10.

Piecing the cherry

Step 1

fruit quilt block cherries
Follow the FPP process in steps 1–7 to sew each of the Cherry template Sections A–K.

Step 2

Sew Section A to B, then sew Section C to the bottom. Sew Section D to the side of Section ABC then sew Section E to the top.

Step 3

Sew Section F to G. Sew Section H to the top of Section FG, then sew Section I to the bottom.

Step 4

Sew Section ABCDE to Section FGHI. Sew Section J to the left corner. Then sew Section K to the right corner. Finish the cherry block as in step 10.

Piecing the orange

Step 1

fruit quilt block orange close up
Follow steps 1–7 to sew each of the Orange template Sections A–F.

Step 2

Sew Section A to B. Sew Section D to E. Sew AB and DE to either side of Section C. Then sew Section F to the top of Section ABCDE. Finish the orange block as in step 10.

Piecing the pear

Step 1

fruit quilt block pear
Follow steps 1–7 to sew each of the Pear template Sections A–H.

Step 2

Sew Sections A to B and C to D. Sew Section AB to CD. Sew Sections E and F to the corners.

Step 3

Sew Section G to H. Sew GH to the top of ABCDEF. Finish the pear block as in step 10.

We hope you’ve enjoyed sewing Jo’s fruit quilt blocks. For more funky projects check out our round-up of quilt kits for beginners and our free English paper piecing templates.