Pieced Vehicles – Improv Style

Front End Loader Block

1. You will need a solid background fabric, a small piece for the window, a solid color for the body
of the loader, and black fabric with white dots for the wheels. You will also be using fusible web.

2. Rough cut the pieces for the window, surrounding orange and tan strips (the background fabric
in this case), a rectangle of orange for the body of the loader, a small orange rectangle, and an
orange triangle. Have some extra background strips also ready to go. You’ll be piecing and
 trimming repeatedly, so keeping a cutting mat and rotary cutter next to your sewing machine
will be helpful. I finger press as I go, but you could iron if you prefer.

3. Sew an orange strip to the top of the window.

4. Sew an orange strip on either side of the window, and then trim to ½ inch from the blue
window.

5. Sew tan strips to the top and sides of the window unit.
6. Trim the bottom of the window unit straight across.

7. Sew tan rectangles to the top and bottom of an orange rectangle. This will be the the strip that
attaches the bucket of the loader to the body of the machine.

8. To make the bucket of the loader, sew a tan strip to the angled side of the triangle. I also
sewed a strip to cut off the bottom right corner of the triangle.
9. Sew a tan rectangle to the top of the bucket unit. You can trim the unit straight at the top
before or after you join the strip.

10. Join the orange strip unit you made earlier to the bucket unit.

11. Sew the body of your loader (orange rectangle) to a tan rectangle. Then sew them to the
bottom of your window unit.
12. Trim the left side of your body/window unit straight. Audition where you want to join it to the
bucket unit. You’ll want the bottom of the bucket to be lower than the bottom of the body –
remember you still have to add the wheels.

13. Sew the body to the bucket, and your loader is taking shape!

14. To make the wheels, trace two circles (I used a spool as a template) onto fusible web.
15. Iron the fusbile web onto the back of your polkadot fabric, centering the white dots inside the
circles.

16. Fuse the wheels onto your loader. When I have several vehicles completed, I will blanket stitch
around the wheels using black thread, which gives the effect of tread.

17. Square and trim up your loader block, and admire your vehicle!