The name of this pattern is called Pickle dish, what an interesting name for a quilt block. It is a similar to a double wedding ring, but with points in it. History states that it could have possibly been called a Pine Burr or Indian Wedding Block also. The pattern seems to have originated in the Southern United States also and became a popular pattern between 1890 and the 1920’s.

So with the history out of the way, the pattern is beautiful and looks intimidating. This is a paper piece pattern so that the points can be very precise. Can you imagine doing this without paper piecing? (Maybe that is why it is called pickle dish, it with pickle your brain by just piecing instead of paper piecing) The pattern is broken down very nicely to put these pieces together to form the 6 1/2″ block. In my quilt, I have four 6 1/2″ blocks to form a small mini-quilt. This would make a stunning large quilt though!

Lets Get Started!

Before printing, I would like to share with you the paper I used for the paper piecing. I found on Amazon a ream of 500 sheets of Newsprint sheets. These will run through your printer and are much thinner so that when it comes time to pull the papers, it will be really easy. Below is the paper I found on Amazon. I highly recommend using this paper for paper piecing.

Step 1

Material lists for the Pickled Pick Me Up Paper Pieced Pattern is as follows:

Print 4 Pattern paper piece patterns at actual size from our Free Resource Library. Print only one of the pages for the border and interior paper piece patterns.
Gather your colors – I used Yellow Fat Quarter, Dark Purple Fat Quarter, and a Lavender Fat Quarter for background.
Next cut your fabrics as follows – these cuts will make 4 – 6 1/2″ inch blocks.

Yellow and Dark Purple Cuts

Cut at least 80 – 2″ blocks from the Yellow and Dark Purple Fat Quarters for the paper piecing. The yellow will include the 8 corner squares we will need in the Yellow fabric. (Figure 1)

Lavender Cuts

Add 1/8″ line to the outside seam allowance of the border piece, this will give you some room when trimming the block in the end. Cut 8 border pieces (Figure 2) and 4 center pieces (Figure 3).

, Pickled Pick Me Up Paper Piece, Say that 10 times fast. Free Pattern and Tutorial — Figure 1

The following are items I also used during the construction of this paper piece mini-quilt.

To watch a detailed tutorial on how to put this block together, check out my YouTube video below.

Step 2

Assemble the first block and the rest will be exactly the same!

IMPORTANT – set your machine to a small stitch between 1.5 and 2 to perforate the paper and make it easier to pull the paper off in the end.

First thing is to decide which paper piece pattern you are going to use, just the lines or the color piece with the lines. If you use the piece with just the lines, then it is a good idea to mark the numbers with their corresponding colors.

We will start with the paper piecing for the block. Set up your 2″ blocks at your sewing machine with your supplies for paper piecing. You will need – a small rotary cutter, a self-healing cutting mat, Add-A-Quarter Ruler, and an iron.

For the first two pieces (B1,B2) follow the following procedure.

Put your yellow 2″ square on top of the purple 2″ square.
Turn your paper over so that printed side is down. (Figure 4)
Position your fabrics so that the purple fabric is down and the B1 section so that the pieces over lap the B1 line by quarter of an inch. Also make sure that your pieces are lined up or go beyond the seam allowance line. (Figure 5)
Tape or pin your pieces down so they don’t move when transferring to your sewing machine. (Figure 5)
Turn your paper back over so printed side is up, make sure your fabric isn’t folded. (Figure 6)
Sew along the B1 line, only on the line, not into the seam allowance. (Figure 7)
Fold the yellow fabric out and iron the seam so that the yellow covers the B2 section. (Figure 8)

First two pieces are done!

For the rest of the pieces (B3 – B19) follow the following procedure.

With the paper printed side up, and the pieces you just sewed closest to you.. fold the paper on the B3 line or the next line to be sewn. (Figure 9 and 10)
At this point your fabric will be exposed and you will cut the 1/4″ seam allowance by butting the Add-A-Quarter ruler up against the fold and trim the quarter inch. (Figure 11 and 12)
Turn the paper back so the fabric is face up and place your next color lined up with the cut seam allowance. (Figure 13)
Carefully turn the paper printed side up, take care to keep your fabric lined up and in place.
Sew along B3 or the next line to be sewn. (Figure 14)
Turn the fabric side back up and iron the piece to cover B3. (Figure 15)
Continue the steps above until you are finished with the paper piecing (through B19)

Step 3

Now we will trim the paper pieces.

Using a ruler on the straight edges of the paper pieces, trim on the outer line (Figure 16 and 17). Carefully use a rotary cutter or scissors to cut the outer line on the curves. (Figure 18 and 19)

Pull the paper off, and iron to flatten the seams. Notice that the seam allowances will have some give since we didn’t sew them. We will need this give when we add the border and center pieces. (Figure 20)

Step 4

IMPORTANT – You can now put your machine back to a normal stitch length.

Add the outside border pieces to your pickle dish paper pieces.

Follow the following steps to add a border.

Find the center of the curve to the border. Either mark or crease it. (Figure 21)
Find the center to the outside of the paper pieced pickle dish and mark or crease it. (Figure 22)
Line up the two creases you just made with right sides of the fabric together and pin. (Figure 23)
Line up the edge of the border with the edge of the paper pieced pickle dish and pin it. (Figure 24)
Take your time during this next part. We will use a quarter inch seam here, and put your border piece up at the machine. Start your stitch and backstitch here, keep your needle down and start manipulating the border piece with the paper piece to match up the edges. Carefully sew using an awl to help keep your fabrics lined up and from not bunching up. (Figure 25 and 26)
Once you get to the middle, put your needle down and re-group to do the same thing with the next half of the border. Keep the pin in at the edge of the border until you sew up to it to pull it out.
Backstitch at the end
Lay your new piece out and notice how it will want to be folded at the seam towards the border. This is the least resistance and that is how we will iron it. Carefully iron the border down with seam towards the border. (Figure 27 and 25)
Repeat to add the border to the other paper piece.

Step 5

Add the two yellow blocks to one of the paper pieces.

Take the square paper pieces that you printed. Add a 1/8″ line to the sides of one corner of the pattern. This will make it fit with the added 1/8″ we put on the border pieces. (Figure 29)

Take two 2″ yellow pieces and cut them to size to the squares you just added 1/8″ to. Choose one of your paper pieces with a border and sew the squares onto each side with a quarter inch seam allowance. (Figure 30)

Iron the squares with the seam allowance towards the yellow. (Figure 31)

Step 6

We will now add the center piece to the other paper piece with border WITHOUT the squares.

Find the center of the curve to the center piece. Either mark or crease it. (Figure 32)
Find the center to the inside of the paper pieced pickle dish and mark or crease it. (Figure 33)
Line up the two creases you just made with right sides of the fabric together and pin. (Figure 34)
Line up the edge of the center piece with the edge of the paper pieced pickle dish and pin it. (Figure 35)
Take your time during this next part. We will use a quarter inch seam here, and put your center piece up at the machine. Start your stitch and backstitch here, keep your needle down and start manipulating the border piece with the paper piece to match up the edges. Carefully sew using an awl to help keep your fabrics lined up and from not bunching up. (Figure 36 and 37)
Once you get to the middle, put your needle down and re-group to do the same thing with the next half of the center piece. Keep the pin in at the edge of the center piece until you sew up to it to pull it out.
Backstitch at the end
Lay your new piece out and notice how it will want to be folded at the seam towards the center piece. This is the least resistance and that is how we will iron it. Carefully iron the center piece down with seam towards the center piece. (Figure 38 and 39)

Step 7

Join the two pieces togehter!

We will follow the steps above in Step 6 to center the pieces. BUT then pin the pieces together at the seam of the square and the paper piece. You will find that the seams will nest here because of the way everything was pressed. (Figures 40 -43)

Starting with the edge, sew 1/4″ and backstitch at the start to the seam we pinned and put your needle down. This was a straight stitch, next we will sew the curve just like described in Step 6. (Figure 44 and 45)

At the end of the block, backstitch

When squaring it up, keep in mind that there should be a 1/4″ between the edge of the paper piece to the outside border in the corners. I used this as a guide to trim my block. (Figure 46)

The Pickle Dish Pick Me Up block is now assembled and just needs to be squared up to 6 1/2″. (Figure 47)

Step 8

Assemble the 4 blocks that you have made! When putting the blocks together, make sure the squares match up with each other. Sew two blocks together and then sew those two sections together, using the yellow block squares to line up. (See Figures 48 and 49 for reference on matching up the yellow squares.)