How to Piece a Tree of Life Quilt Block

It’s time to piece our Tree of Life quilt block for February! This beautiful block is created with 32 scraps or 5-inch squares (plus a good bit of background fabric). For the first time we have an asymmetrical arrangement so make sure to follow the tips in this video to piecing this block:

Click Here to find the pattern for the Tree of Life block. This pattern includes a special bonus pattern for the 78 inch Tree of Life Quilt! Learn how to piece a supersized version of the block and I’ll be sharing an extra video this month on how to quilt it.

Bonus Tree of Life Quilt – Finished Size 78-inches square

To make the Tree of Life Quilt Block, you’ll first need to make a big batch of half square triangles. Click Here to learn how to make half square triangles.

Don’t Waste Your Time Fiddling!

It’s really easy to get the block arranged, then start fiddling with the pieces. Oh! That white scrap can’t be right next to another one! It ends up being a rabbit hole of changes and fiddling and trust me when I say I’ve wasted hours doing this.

Try not to fiddle with the pieces or it will just lead to more fiddling!

To keep myself from fiddling excessively, I’ve adopted a habit of laying it out and piecing the fabrics as they land. Yes, even if that means two of the same colored scraps end up right next to one another. That’s just fine!

Consider how that block will look combined with all the others over the quilt. Small things like this are really not going to be noticeable in the grand scrappy scheme of things.

Clip Your Rows Carefully

I pieced all the units together into rows, then pieced the rows together. I admit, I was in a bit of a hurry and decided to use my usual technique for matching seams with no pinning. Instead I trusted my fabric preparation and fabric cutting. I used fingertip pressure to stack the seams and hold them together as they slipped under the foot.

I didn’t pin the seams when piecing my rows together.

Is this piecing method perfect? Nope. But it is fast!

This method works great on freshly starched and pressed fabric. It’s also essential that you’ve checked each piece to make sure it’s trimmed to exactly the right size. If all the fabric is stiff, and cut the correct size, there shouldn’t be a need to pin at each seam. Yes, even when the seams are pressed open.

A few seams slipped, but most matched perfectly!

I did have a few seams slip a tiny bit, but on this particular block it’s really not noticeable. The triangles don’t have to match perfectly in order to look great.

Practice on the Supersized Version First!

And if this seems challenging on a small scale, you could always practice on the supersized Tree of Life Quilt instead! Find the bonus pattern and piece this 78 inch quilt in addition to your block this month:

If piecing the block seems challenging, try piecing the quilt instead!

Click Here to find both the block and bonus quilt pattern. I can’t promise we will have more bonus patterns, but it was a fun challenge for this special block!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

Find more Friendship Quilt Along Tutorials

Check out the other tutorials I shared for this Tree of Life quilt block:

• How to cut scraps for the Friendship Quilt Along
• Piece two at a time half square triangles
• How to Quilt the Tree of Life block with Undulation