Are you ready for Step 2?
I've really enjoyed seeing everyone's progress on Step 1. The photos you've sent me and the Instagrams with #BTQsummersewalong have been fun to see so far. Please share your photos of Step one at the end of this post with the linky party.
Step 2
We are making the same nine patches as we did in step one, only these are going to be made from our background fabrics.
- Cut 78 strips 2 1/2'' x 18 1/2''
- Sew the strips into 26 sets of three.
- Layer the strip sets as shown, staggered to prevent the seams from being directly on top of one another.
- Trim the ends even.
- Cut across the strip sets at five inches.
- Then cut across the strip sets at 2 1/2''.
- Repeat until the strips are all cut into 2 1/2'' sections. Cut a total of 180 sections.
- Sew these together into nine patch blocks.
Make 60 background nine patches.
Design note: I used all white on white prints for my backgrounds mostly because I found a stack of fat quarters in the back of a bin that I had forgotten I had. Many of them were from the same fat quarter bundle and were super similar in colors and design scale. I purposely went through my scrap bin and my other white fabrics and chose additional fabrics that were more creamy or different shades of white. I also chose some that had very large scale prints and geometric prints rather than the small scale floral and dot prints from the bundle. Adding variety of shades and scale prevents too much blending. Why do all this work if it's going to look like one fabric? Add things that will 'pop' or 'stand out' just a bit to keep things interesting. If in doubt, throw in the mix, it's those fabrics that you think might not work that end up being the magic! So go for it!
Have fun sewing and thanks for joining the fun!
Enjoy every stitch,
Diane
I think you meant to type "cut your strip sets at 2.5" rather than 5
ReplyDeleteThanks for the fun sew along~~
Actually, I should have given more explanation. I do cut at 5" then slide my rule back and cut that 5" in half at 2 1/2". I find doing it this way keeps things nice and squared up and there's no sliding or shifting. If I simply keep cutting every 2 1/2" sometimes my strips sets shift a bit and I get parallelograms instead of squares. Maybe that's just me though. LOL
DeleteCan't believe I'm the first to link up - I'm usually always way behind! Thanks for the great instructions - I'm looking forward to seeing how this all goes together.
ReplyDeleteIt's a beautiful QAL, Diane! But I have too many WIPs to finish this year!
ReplyDeleteWhat is the finished size? Wondering if I need more blocks.
ReplyDeleteCan I come late to the sew a long? I have waaay too many jelly rolls that I want badly to use up! (I don't do instagram or facebook but I can link up)...I L O V E this idea--it is amazing...hugs, Julierose
ReplyDelete