Monday, February 13, 2012

My Long Weekend - Part Thereof

Would you like to re-live the weekend with me?  I was on a retreat...usually that means drinking, eating, sewing, laughing, relaxing etc.  This weekend there was a LOT of cutting as well.  So, buckle up, here we go.

Cut 2 1/2 inch strips - one background, one main fabric.  Sew them together in strips.  Lots and lots of lovely strips that are then sprayed with Mary Ellens Best Press and ironed.
Oops - it could have been ironed it better.....but don't worry, there'll be lots more opportunities down the track to get it right.
Now, get out your handy dandy template (that you spent AGES measuring and testing at home), and line it up on the seam just so, to get the angle you need
Then CAREFULLY lay your ruler on the right hand side and cut...
  Then measure along every 3 1/2 inches to cut more segments
Then turn EACH piece, and put the 1 and a quarter and an eighth (OK, 1 and 3/8ths) line on the top seam, making sure that there is a straight line across the cut edge, and slice.  Then turn the piece and trim the other side to make a 3 1/2 inch square.
EXCELLENT!  You now have one quarter of one block.  Yay!!  Make a few (hundred) more,
then sew them in pairs ("twosies")
 
and then flip one of them and NOW you can see what the block is going to look like.
keep going
and going...
eventually you will have 121 blocks for an 11 X 11 layout, looking something like this....aaahhhh