Alice, or “Sola” at Alice Samuels Quilt Co. created the 8th block for the I Wish You a Merry Quilt-Along and while the block was a challenge, I was so excited and rewarded when it was finished.  Her tutorial can be found at With Love at Christmas / Christmas Presents.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this one color wise, and focused on slightly contrasting fabrics for the front and sides of the presents.  I didn’t however get fixated on the seams that were described as “tricky” which turned out to be the first Y seams I have ever sewn.  With patience, and basting first, I was able to get them pretty darned close after a few tries.  I also ended up using markers for the seams (check out Jennifer Fulton’s tutorial on this block which also helped.  You can find it here.   For that matter, I read all the hostesses blogs on this particular block given the tricky seams as it never hurts to have read too many tutorials.  They were all fantastic!

I am simply in love with this block.  Along the way, I couldn’t see how the small cuts of fabrics were going to translate into a large block but I find myself planning a mini quilt with this tutorial.  The block is too cute not to make again, and not to practice the Y seam.  Look for that in a future blog.  I also used Jennifer’s method of offsetting the blocks rather than  having them sit side by side.  I like the additional dimension it gives the block.

Here’s how it looks with my remake of the Poinsettia block.  I am loving the combo.

It also pairs well with my Elf block (I changed the Angel into an Elf), which I posted about here.

And my Sam had to pose for a picture of the blocks completed to date, including the extra (original) Poinsettia.  He must be waiting for it to be all finished so he can sleep on it.  The little scrap blocks on Santa’s Belt are from a couple of the earlier blocks from making corners.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with those yet but my pile of corner misfits is growing and growing!

One more close up…left is the full set of 8 blocks with what I think I will go with.  Right is with the original poinsettia block I felt wasn’t at home.  Looks pretty good to me right now though.

New block is released tomorrow.  I am really looking forward to getting started on the next one.