Tutorial: Mini Spool Block

I love it when a Craftsy class inspires me to create my own block quilt block!

I have a number of patchwork and quilting classes that I have purchased on special sitting in my Craftsy account waiting for me to watch them so this class had been sitting there for a while. (I love that once I have purchased them, it doesn’t matter if I wait ages to watch them!)

Anyway this particular class is by Camille Roskelly and is about using pre-cuts to create quick quilts. It is called Playful Piecing.

Now I’m already a pre-cut fan. I have a bunch of charm squares, jelly rolls and layer cakes in my stash waiting for the perfect pattern. I loved the look of Camille’s spool quilt but I wanted to use a charm square pack to create mine. So I made a few adjustments to the pattern and created my own Mini Spool Block.

I have turned the complete set of charms into spool blocks now but I haven’t quite finished the quilt so here’s how I made the blocks. Look out for the finished quilt soon.

What You Need

• Spool body: charm squares – 5″ x 5″ squares – each block uses three different charms
• Spool ends (red spot): two rectangles – 6.5″ x 2″ (These look longer in my photo below – I cut them too large the first time!)
• Background (white): two rectangles – 1.25″ x 6.45″ and four squares –  1.25″ x 1.25″

What To Do

Note: All seams are quarter-inch seams and seams have been pressed to the side.

1. For the spool ends, lay two small squares on two corners of the 6.5″ x 2″ rectangle, right sides together. Stitch corner to corner as shown in the photo above.

2. Trim the excess triangle off leaving a quarter inch seam, and press the remaining triangle flat. Do the same to the other rectangle to create the second spool end.

3. Spool body: Cut the three charm squares in half to create rectangles that are 5″ x 2.5″. We will use three of these rectangles for this block so put the others aside for another block. Join the three half charm squares together to create the centre of the spool.

4. Join the narrow background rectangles to the sides of the spool centre.

5. Finally join the spool ends to the centre.

If you’d like to check out Camille’s spool block in the Playful Piecing class, and the other three fabulous quilts she teaches with lots of tips and tricks thrown in, check it out on Craftsy.