Dear Jane,

I’ve affectionately named B8 “Ketchup.”  First of all, it’s a RED block that kind of looks like a ketchup splatter, and secondly, I’ve been playing “catch up” this last week, trying to get row B done so that I can move on to C.  B8 is the final block on row B that I needed to finish.  I finished appliquéing the final melon seed down after church today.

Technique:

I took a slightly different approach on this block than what I’ve seen described elsewhere.  I actually paper pieced everything except the “melon seeds.”

1.  Print out the block from the Dear Jane software.  There is no paper (foundation) piecing option available, so just choose to print the block outline.

2.  Cut the block in 1/2 diagonally and then in 1/2 again diagonally.  This gives you four units that can be foundation pieced.  As an FYI, I always leave the outside edge untrimmed until the very end to make sure that I end up with a 4 1/2″ block.
3.  After paper piecing the four separate units, sew them together to form your background square.

4.  Appliqué the four melon seed shapes onto the block in the positions indicated on the pattern.  I love the precision of this technique, and unless you look really hard, you can hardly tell that it’s a deviation from what Dear Jane did.