Job's Tears Bible Quilt Block Pattern

The 4 points can represent his tears but can also be considered to show the breadth of his wealth and possessions. The intersecting lines for a cross with Job at the center in juxtaposition to his fragmented life. A simple block for such a powerful book.

There are 3 variations and two other names, although one is called Job's Troubles. Interestingly enough, the other is King David's Crown.

Our third block is Job's Tears. As I explained with the first block I am using templates so you can cut the pieces out the old fashioned way. Since we are only doing one block of each pattern I found it works fine to cut out the paper templates and draw around them. If you are making more blocks you will want to make plastic templates. The blocks can be either machine or hand stitched.

The pattern for the Job's Tears block templates is on the Job's Tears Templates PDF.

These templates include the � inch seam allowance if you cut along the outside dotted edge.

The graphics to the left show how the templates should be cut based on the grain of the fabric. For those of you just beginning to quilt the arrows should be in the same direction as the threads in the weave. For our purposes you can use either the horizontal or vertical thread direction for your grain.

The goal is to be sure any time you have to sew a bias (diagonal to the grain) edge it be sewn to an edge that is on grain. The grain edge stabilizes the stretchy bias edge. It's not always possible but when I can I like to put the fabric with the bias edge on the bottom. It seems to stretch more if it is on the top

When possible I like to press the seams toward the darker fabric. However in the case of the section shown in step 2 I found it was best to iron the seams away from the teardrop diamond shape even though it meant ironing toward the light side. In that case just be sure none of your dark seam is showing on the front of the block. If it does just trim it a bit.

Arrange your pieces before sewing to prevent sewing the wrong edges together.

Start sewing where I've drawn a red line. Be careful your stitching starts in the V exactly 1/4 inches from the edge.

Step 1 Sew the upper triangle to the teardrop diamond for each square.

Step 2 Sew the lower triangle to the other side of the teardrop diamond to finish each section.

Step 3 Sew a rectangle piece of sashing to one completed section.

Step 4 Sew another completed section to the opposite side of the sashing.

Step 5 Sew a rectangle piece of sashing to each side of the small central square.

Step 6 Attach center sashing and top section.	Step 7 Attach center sashing and bottom section. Press.

� 2007 Judy Anne Breneman and Charlotte Bull