Seminole piecing tutorial- Part II

This technique is too fun not to explore it more, so I present you Part II of the Seminole Piecing tutorial. You find Part I here.

Yesterday, someone asked me if this technique works with ombre fabric. Of course, but you will not have such variety in color compared with a rainbow fabric. Many ombre fabrics are monochrome, but there are multicolor fabrics as well.

For this new design, I used again a rainbow fabric, from the Effervescence collection by Robert Kaufman (still in stores).

This is the design I made in Part I …

Rainbow seminole patchwork tutorial

… and here is the new one.

Seminole piecing tutorial
TRENDING patterns

Here is what you need:

Set #1

  • one strip of rainbow fabric 2” wide  x 42” long (cut along the width of the fabric)
  • two strips of solid fabric 2  1/2” wide  x  42” long (cut along the width of the fabric).

Set #2

  • one strip of rainbow fabric  1  1/2” wide  x 42” long (cut along the width of the fabric)
  • two strips of solid fabric 2  3/4” wide  x  42” long (cut along the width of the fabric).
Seminole piecing tutorial

For each set, piece the strips together, with the rainbow strip in the center. Sew with 1/4” seam allowance and press the seam allowances away from the center strip.

Seminole piecing tutorial

Cut the set with narrow center strip into 1  1/2” pieces.
Cut the set with wide center strip into 2” pieces.

Seminole piecing tutorial

You have to piece them as shown below, alternating wide strips with narrow strips. I selected one piece from each color.

Seminole piecing tutorial

Sew together a wide strip with a narrow strip. Place them right sides together, nesting the horizontal seams.  It is easy to do this, the seam allowances run in opposite directions.

Press the seam allowances open.

Seminole piecing tutorial

Sew pairs…

Seminole piecing tutorial

… then piece the pairs together in the desired order.

Seminole piecing tutorial

Sew together how many pairs you need.

Seminole piecing tutorial

View of the wrong side with all the seams pressed open.

Seminole piecing tutorial

To straighten the edges of the design, align the 1  1/2” marking line of a long ruler over the center of the colored squares (see the yellow marking line).

Seminole piecing tutorial

Cut along the top edge of the ruler.
Rotate the design and do the same to straighten the other edge.

Seminole piecing tutorial

A RECAP picture!

Seminole piecing tutorial

This design is 3” wide. The length of two “on point” squares is 3 1/2”. I think it would make a wonderful border for a rainbow quilt.

Seminole piecing tutorial

The distance from the top corner of the big squares to the edge is about 1/2”.  If you want this distance to be only 1/4”, align the 1/4” marking line of the ruler with the top corners of the big squares and cut along the edge of the ruler.

Seminole piecing tutorial

If you want to make a wider border, sew additional strips to the top and bottom edges. Actually, I think this should be a must, because at this stage, the outer edges are cut on bias and adding strips cut lengthwise will stabilize the piece, which is important for a border of a quilt.

If you want to download these instructions (+ the instructions for the design explained in Part I of this tutorial), click below.

Seminole Patchwork



I hope you like this Seminole design. I find it fun and easy to sew.

MORE SEMINOLE PATTERN IDEAS- click on the pictures below.

Seminole heart quilt pattern
Seminole heart quilt pattern

Happy sewing!

PIN IT FOR LATER REFERENCE

Seminole piecing tutorial

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8 Comments

  1. Thank you so much. This is so great for purses and totes.. Make them look beautiful. Again another great tutorial for us non quilters to look like we know what we re doing. 🙂

  2. How beautiful in modern fabrics! I learned Seminole piecing in the 80’s, but haven’t done much since then. Must get that out again.

    1. I was wondering about that, but I think one way you could do it would be to just trim up the ends with a perfect 1/4″ seam allowance. If you wanted a bit of space between the last diamond and your corner block, you could account for that and add a bit of your background color to the ends!

  3. I want to add this order to a quilt but I wanted to incorporate some of the fabric that I used in the quilt so it would not be a rainbow fabric . Do you have a tutorial for that ?

    1. Instead of rainbow strips, cut long strips from your desired fabrics. Make a few sets of color fabric+white fabric, cut the strips then combine them as you wish.

      In this tutorial you cut strips 42” long. Instead of this long rainbow strip, cut, as example, 4 strips, 10” long, from 4 different fabrics. Or 5 strips, 8” long. It depends on how many different fabrics you want and how long the seminole design needs to be. You can use strips of any length.

      I hope this helps.

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