How’s your Merry Midnight project coming along?
Hopefully you’ve had some fun digging through your fabric stash, playing with colour combinations, and deciding what you’d like your Merry Midnight blocks to become 😊
Now comes the fun of actually getting into the making!
This week we’re focusing on pressing, cutting, and piecing our Merry Midnight Quilt Blocks.
And remember, this is an easygoing quilt-along. If you’re still pulling fabrics or haven’t quite decided how many blocks you want to make yet, you’re not behind. Jump in wherever you’re at and enjoy the process.
The Merry Midnight Quilt Block Pattern is available for instant digital download here.
Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to shop through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share fabrics and tools I genuinely love and would happily use myself.
Merry Midnight Quilt-Along
Following along with the Merry Midnight QAL? Here’s where you can find each step in our easygoing stitching adventure:
- Week 1 – Getting Started – Choose your project, pull your fabrics, and get ready to stitch.
- Week 2 – Cutting + Piecing – Press and cut your fabrics, then stitch up your Merry Midnight blocks.
- Week 3 – Basting + Quilting – Finalize your layout, baste your project, and add some quilty texture.
- Week 4 – Binding + Finishing – Add those final binding stitches and celebrate your Merry Midnight finish!
Pressing + Cutting Your Fabrics
With your fabrics selected and your project size narrowed down, it’s time to get everything pressed and cut.
I recently shared my go-to pressing set-up, so I won’t dive into all those specifics again here. Just know that’s still very much what’s happening behind the scenes 😉
When I’m cutting a quilt project, I tend to work pretty systematically.
For Merry Midnight, I like to start by pressing Colours 1 through 5 and then work my way through cutting Pieces A, B, C, D, and J.
One little thing that helps me enormously is using the block labels included in the Merry Midnight Quilt Block Pattern.
As I work my way through the cutting chart, I label the pieces and keep everything grouped together. It might seem like a small extra step, but having everything clearly identified makes the piecing stage so much more relaxed.
And once I get those colours cut?
I take a break – ha!
Cutting puts quite a bit of pressure on my hands and wrists, so this is usually my cue to step away and give my body a reprieve before coming back to tackle the background fabric.
There’s no prize for getting everything cut in one sitting 😉
Once my background fabric is pressed, cut, and labelled, I like to corral all those little pieces together on a plate.
Yup, a plate!
It’s one of my favourite ways to keep small patchwork pieces from wandering off in my sewing space before I’m ready for them.
With everything cut and organized, we’re ready to start stitching!
Start with the Half-Square Triangles
A new sewing day calls for pulling out that plate of freshly cut pieces and getting some stitches going 😊
I like to start with the half-square triangles.
There’s nothing overly complicated about stitching up these cuties, but Merry Midnight includes a couple of different HST sizes, so be sure to check the trimming instructions in your pattern as you work through them.
There’s something about seeing a fresh little stack of nicely trimmed HSTs that always makes me smile.
It’s the little things, right?!
I use my favourite HST trimming ruler to make quick work of this step. It’s completely optional — your regular quilting ruler will absolutely do the trick — but since I make a lot of HSTs, it’s one of those specialty tools that gets plenty of use in my sewing space.
Need a little HST refresher? I’ve got a full half-square triangle tutorial you can refer to for more tips.
Stitching the Four-Patch Units
Next up: four-patches!
This part feels wonderfully relaxed after all that cutting and trimming.
Plus, I always love seeing the different colour combinations start coming together.
Since I’m working from my stash for this Merry Midnight project, I mixed up some of my purple fabric combinations rather than making every block identical.
One of the nice things about the four-patch units is that once they’re pieced, there’s no trimming required. Press them according to the pattern and they’re ready for the next stage.
Easy peasy 😊
Time for Some Curved Piecing
And now we’ve arrived at the part that might feel a little trickier in our Merry Midnight piecing adventure 😉
The Drunkard’s Path units!
But I’m here to remind you that the more curves you piece, the easier they get.
Like so many quilting techniques, there’s a little muscle memory involved. The first one might feel awkward. The next one feels a little less awkward. And before long, you start getting into a groove.
That’s the best feeling!
Whether you prefer pinning your curves or taking a pin-free approach, my biggest tip is simple:
Slow down.
I know, I know.
There’s something wonderfully satisfying about chain piecing at a zooming pace – ha!
But curved piecing is one of those times when slower really is better.
Give yourself time to keep those fabric edges aligned, gently guide the curve under your presser foot, and let the machine do the work rather than stretching or pulling your fabric into place.
And don’t worry if your first curve isn’t your favourite one you’ve ever sewn. We’re learning and building confidence as we go.
If curved piecing is new to you — or you’d simply like a little refresher before tackling your Merry Midnight blocks — I recently shared my full Drunkard’s Path tutorial with all my favourite tips for getting those curves stitched up smoothly.
If you’d like more in-depth guidance on curved piecing and precision patchwork, you can also explore my Little Forest Quilt Course, where we spend more time working through techniques like curves step-by-step.
Look at Those Merry Midnight Blocks!
And then comes my favourite part — watching all those individual units turn into finished blocks.
Since I was working entirely from my stash, I opted to mix up the colour combinations in my patchwork to make the fabrics I had work while adding a little extra variety from block to block.
I’m super happy with how they turned out 😊
And it’s such a good reminder that we often have some fantastic fabric sitting right there in our stash just waiting for us to play with it.
I didn’t have purple on my radar when I first started thinking about this project, and yet here we are!
In the end, I made 4 Merry Midnight blocks.
That number was partly dictated by the fabrics I was working with and partly by wanting to make sure my finished table runner would suit the length of my table.
Now comes another fun part: figuring out how I want to arrange them!
This is exactly when my design wall comes in handy. I’ll throw everything up there, move the blocks around, probably change my mind several times – ha! – and see which combination catches my eye.
I’ll share where I land in our next Merry Midnight Quilt-Along update.
Keep Building Your Piecing Skills:
Want a little extra help while you work through your Merry Midnight blocks? These tutorials and resources will help you with some of the techniques we’re using this week.
That’s a Wrap on Week 2!
And just like that, we’re another week into our Merry Midnight stitching adventure 😊
Whether you’ve finished all your blocks, you’re halfway through your curves, or you’re still happily cutting fabric, keep going at the pace that feels good to you.
This isn’t about racing to the finish line.
It’s about carving out a little creative time, learning something along the way, and watching a festive project slowly come to life.
Good luck piecing your Merry Midnight blocks, and don’t forget to have fun!
I can’t wait to see your blocks popping up on the ‘gram and in our private Facebook group.
Next week, we’ll turn those finished blocks into projects and tackle basting + quilting.
Happy stitching!
xo,
Shannon
P.S. Want more quilting inspiration? Join Studio Notes for behind-the-scenes projects, creative encouragement, helpful tutorials, and early access to new patterns and courses. I’d love to have you there.
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