This week I am participating in something
completely different, a strip block race!
Never having sewn for speed,
I am not sure what to expect!
I'm sewing on a featherweight so
it is pretty speedy.
All oiled and ready to go!
We're to prepare our strips any
way we like so I am setting mine
up like I do when I sew them at home.
The finished block size is 10" cut.
I do have some design boards I use
to set up my scrap blocks.
My BB made them for me.
They work wonderfully for laying
out all kinds and of blocks.
You can see they have had a lot of use!
I don't think they will be used in this
project but I have used them for
crumb and string blocks as well as
blocks with many units.
The blocks for "race" will be
10" cut so I will precut some
strips to make the correct size.
After a few trials, here is what I've
come up with!
The blocks for the race need to be
made with strips/strings 2" wide or
less. The corners can be triangles
cut form 4" or 5" squares.
Soo..
I cut a bunch of 10" papers,
gave them a diagonal fold to
keep me straight,
and started looking for strips.
Then I organized them into piles
that matched my sewing order
and I am ready! I have these convenient
totes for them too!
My practice one worked okay and
I think I can make about 20 in the
2 hour time limit! It should be fun!
The sew along is
moving right along. All the diamonds
have their sides. Eventually,
after 3 tries at cutting side triangles,
I ended up paper piecing the finishing
sides. Even though I'm not fond of
paper piecing, it sure makes precise
corners and seam allowances!
This was actually step 7 if you've visited the you tube channel.
Step 6 was a very cute periwinkle block.
I used a template to cut the periwinkle shape
out of scraps strips of blue.
Then outside oversized triangles were
added. Trim the whole thing down to
3 1/2" and they were finished!
It was not too hard once I figured out the
proper system to maintain a 1/4" seam allowance!
Now on to step 8.
First, the beige rectangles ( step 1)are snowballed.
This uses up all the plain brown squares from step 3.
The brown blocks are pressed in half to mark the stitching line.
The off cuts are used to make hourglass units.
One creative sewer, stitches down the side of the
square to make 1/2 of the hourglass and the snowball
all at once.
It only requires 32 hourglass blocks so
leftovers can be made into pinwheels for
use in another project!
Step 8 is well on its way !
Off to the race!
Stay safe and sew on !
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