Plum Card Trick

Plum Card Trick is a throw of thirty Card Trick blocks in Aubergine, Plum, Dusty Violet and Berry on Pale Lilac, set five across and six down without sashing, finished at 71 × 83 inches. The Card Trick block is four squares that appear to overlap at their corners, each card a different value, so the block reads as a stack seen from above; here the four plums are placed in the same order in every block and the blocks are rotated a quarter turn as they go along the row, so the stack appears to turn across the quilt. Each twelve-inch block is nine units of half-square and quarter-square triangles, 840 pieces in all, and the effect depends on the four cards keeping their values distinct against the lilac ground. The pattern gives every triangle its fabric and its position so the cards line up at the seams, and asks you to press toward the darker card at each join so the intersections sit flat. A Berry inner border and an Aubergine outer border frame the field. This is an advanced piece for a quilter comfortable with quarter-square triangles and a lot of matching; the reward is a graphic, deco surface from four solids. The download includes yardage, a cutting chart by fabric, the unit-by-unit piecing order and a printable layout.