All stripped & ready to sew

All the strips (all 21 of them, plus those 8- 1" squares per block--yes, I do think I'm nuts) are cut and I'm ready to start sewing. I think.

I do wish you could smell those roses in the background.

1" block strips ready to cut

Cutting 320- 1" blocks each of blue and cream, pre-attached to their various strips. Much easier than sewing 640- 1 1/2" seams!

(And may I mention again, I just *love* my Olfa set!!!)

Finding short-cuts (aka strip piecing)

So I've realized that making a quilt the finished size I want requires a mere 80 blocks. Which means a total of 640 - 1 and 1/2" squares (320 each of 2 colors), in addition to the 21 other pieces per block. And I think that's nuts!!

Even though the directions say "sew a 1" block of contrasting color to the end of strip #'s 5, 9, and 12;" I'm thinking there *has* to be an easier way. Why not sew the 1 1/2" strips of contrasting color together before cutting them into units? For that matter, I could sew the contrasting "single block" strips to the wider strips before cutting *them* and save myself even more tiny seam sewing.

So here we are. Half-way into the "contrasting squares" process...

...getting ready to sew on 1" blocks, 80 at a time. This I can handle. (I think!)

There's a great set of step-by-step strip-piecing directions here. And more helpful tips here.

What's a "scant" 1/4" seam, anyway?

Practicing a "scant" 1/4" seam on scrap.

Why don't they just call it a 3/16ths and be done with it?? BTW, there are *really* helpful tips about successfully sewing those pesky 1/4" seams here.

Quilting Southern-style

Decided I didn't want to mess with double-folding the 60" stuff before cutting. But my really cool Olfa ruler is only 6" x 24" long. What to do, what to do?

Duct tape!!!

Works like a charm. (insert self-congratulatory smile here)
;-)

Making the first cuts

So I have all my fabric, and the really cool Olfa cutting mat (from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon) has been joined by a really cool Olfa rotary cutter and (yep, you guessed it) really cool Olfa rulers (that I got on a wicked good sale from Connecting Threads.com). I'm all set now, right???

I am trying to remember why I got a 6 1/2" right-angle triangle ruler though. There are no diagonal lines anywhere in this block--unless I cut something WAY wrong....