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Scrappy Trips Challenge 2024 - Part 2A - sew blocks

How is your fabric strip collection coming along?


In my last post I told you to collect, cut and sew your strips. Now we'll sub-cut those strip sets and re-sew them into completed blocks.



CUT THE STRIPS

We've got a tube sewn of our 6 strips of fabric.


Lay the strip set tube on your cutting mat and gently finger press the seam allowances so they lay as flat as possible. We'll deal with the pressing later.



Trim the edge even. I like to line a horizontal line on my ruler with either a seam or the bottom edge of the strip set. Cut 6 units that measure 2 1/2" wide.



OPEN THE STRIPS

Use a seam ripper to remove the stitches between Fabric 1 and Fabric 2. It doesn't matter which fabrics you start with. If you are using a constant fabric or colour for all your blocks, you might want to think of Fabric 1 as the constant.



Open the strip and place the constant fabric at the top on your work surface.


On the next strip, use the seam ripper to remove the stitches between Fabric 2 and Fabric 3 (in this case the green and the beige above it).


Open the strip and place this section to the right of the first strip. Fabric 1 should be a step lower in this strip than the first strip. You will probably open the wrong seam a few times till you get the hang of it. Don't worry. Just stitch that seam back up and open the seam between the correct 2 fabrics.


Continue with removing the stitches between Fabric 3 and Fabric 4 (beige and black) and then between Fabric 4 and Fabric 5 (black and green) on the next strips and finally between Fabric 5 and Fabric 6 (green and black polkadot).


As you lay each strip unit down on your work surface you should see a diagonal line appear from the top left to the bottom right. If this isn't clear, check to make sure you haven't removed stitches between the wrong units or rotated the strip unit.


SEW THE STRIPS INTO THE BLOCK

Sew the strip units together nesting the seam allowances.


As we sew the strip sets together we are going to fold and finger press the seams in alternating directions. Have a close look at the first image. The first seam allowance on the top strip will face towards you and the first seam allowance on the bottom strip will face away. This is called "nesting" the seams. The seam allowances should match perfectly.


It's really important that you follow this nesting plan. The quilt will go together so much easier if you start right.


Continue stitching and when you get to the next seam intersection, the seam allowance on the top strip will face up and the seam allowance on the bottom strip will face down. The seam allowances on the third seam will be the same as the first.



Continue alternating nesting the seam allowances. It may be confusing at first, but will make for a nice smooth quilt.


Once you have sewn all 5 seams, double check that your diagonal line is perfect then press the seam allowances so they spin. You may need to use your seam ripper to release a few stitches at the seam intersection.


PRESS THE SEAMS

Give your block a final press with an iron.


Start working on a number of blocks. Next time we'll figure out how many blocks we need and how we will arrange them into a quilt.

 

Check out the 2nd part to this post. Scrappy Trips Challenge 2024 - Part 2B - sew blocks. It's a different way of arranging the strips sets to give you a different block layout.

 

May 13: Sew Strips

May 27: Arrange and sew the blocks into a quilt top (or two)

June 3: Border ideas (scrappy) - Piano Keys and Checkerboard

June 10: Binding - I'll do a tutorial on the Faux Piped Binding


Remember, it's not a rush. Just something to encourage us to sew and use up what we have.


Happy Quilting.




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