Welcome to SewVeryEasy, my name is Laura. Most times when we make a quilt block we take little pieces of fabric that we've cut up and we sew them back together in order to make the block. Well in this case we are going to sew the fabric together first, then cut it apart. The quilt can be made with any strips of fabric. It doesn't matter the width of the strip; they just all need to be the same. 2½" jelly roll strips are very easy to come by and it's a nice size, so I have a pile of 2½" strips of fabric. You don't need to trim off the selvages. We'll trim them off as we make the blocks. You can make your own strips by cutting 2½" off of your fabric. You want to the entire width of the fabric so you have selvage on each end of your strips. Be sure to press the fabric first before you cut them. After each project you can cut whatever fabric is left over into 2½" strips and put them aside for projects such as this. Once I have all of my strips together I'm going to start and sew them in units of two. Take two strips and sew them together. I try to choose two strips so I have a dark and a light or something that is a high contrast. Match up the selvage edges and stitch ¼" all the way down. Then we need to press these. There are a couple of techniques on pressing these strips once they're together. We do need to press the seam allowances to one side but we don't want to bow those strips. If you have a pressing mat with lines, you'll be able to use those lines to your advantage. However, because this is fabric, those lines might have shifted, so be sure to check that your lines are straight. If the lines are crooked on the mat you don't want to use them. If your ironing board or mat is long enough to do the whole strip, that works out great. If not, you can do it a section at a time. I like to have the darker side up at the top and that seam I've stitched away from me. Even if it has moved a little bit with your stitching you can straighten it up. Make sure your strip is straight, and press. Next you need to finger-press it. This is still hot, so you'll be able to finger-press it open. By having that dark on the top, my seam is going to stay to the dark side. This is definitely an extra step, but it really makes a difference. Take your fingers and make sure that none of those seams are folded over; that you have a nice straight edge. Because that fabric is warm it's going to be very easy to do and the seam is almost set on its own. Now we can press it. Make sure that the strip is straight, put your iron at one end, take the other end and pull it slightly. It doesn't need to be pulled a lot; just slightly. Then run the iron right down the center of that seam. If you press this way, trying to force that seam over, you'll take a chance of stretching the fabric. You've already done the first foldover by hand; the second press of the iron is going to ensure that that stays straight and it's only pressing that center. The less heat we have along the edges, the better. Once it's pressed, have it hang over a chair or the edge of something so that you don't have to worry about getting that fold in there. Press all of the strips so the fabric is going to the darker side of your strips. Once all of the twos are put together and pressed we're going to sew two of the twos together. When matching up your strips you're going to want the right sides facing and your dark on a light and the light on a dark. That seam is going to nestle right together. We're going to stitch ¼" on both long edges, sewing both of these pieces together. it's going to end up making a tube. Stitch down one side and stitch down the other. Keep your edges as straight as you can. These will be trimmed off after. When both edges have been stitched, give it another press. The pressing does play an important part. What it does is it takes that thread that we've stitched and it embeds it in-between the fabrics, so it makes that thread become part of the fabric and it helps the seams lie nice and flat. We're going to cut these into triangles. You can use a square or triangle ruler. The triangle must be a half-square so that when you cut the one side, the next side will line up. If you have a space, it has the wrong angle. You can use any half-square triangle shape and it's handy if you have the lines going down. If not, we can mark a square ruler to duplicate this. You can mark either the back side or the right side of the ruler. I have a tape that's designed to mark rulers so I will use that. I have my strip lined up on one of the lines and it doesn't matter what lines you use. We're just using the straight lines. I want that tip right to the edge of that strip. I'm going to be able to see right through the ruler to make sure that that line is straight and this line is straight. Now put a piece of tape right along the bottom so the tape is going to match the bottom of that strip. Then trim off the ends of the tape. Now when I turn the square over the tip is going to be at one edge and that straight tape line is going to be along the bottom. It's good to have some kind of a mark along the bottom because it's very easy to slightly twist that. We want to keep those triangles nice and straight. I'm going to cut this strip into triangles. I'll have one point at one edge and one point at the other. You need the one ruler for the triangular mark and you can use the straight ruler for the second end. That way you don't have to twist that ruler back and forth. I'm going to do my first row of cutting, This is where you're going to trim off this end. My bottom edge is matched up; my point is matched up. I'm going to make one cut. That's going to come off. The next cut needs to come along this side. It's a little hard cutting with the wrong hand. That's where this extra ruler can come in handy. Before you move this ruler, take that ruler and slide it right up along that edge. Hold the straight ruler down and move the triangle. Now I can cut right along that edge. I now have the triangle cut. Line that ruler back up: My edge is matching the bottom; I have the tip up at the top and I can match up that cut point right at that edge. Cut my first line. Put my straight ruler butted up against that edge, move my triangle and cut the next side. I'm going be able to use the triangle and the straight all the way along. I find it easier than taking and twisting the ruler every single time you need to make a cut. On each point you're going to have three or four stitches. You need to remove those stitches. Now when we open it up we have a perfect square. From each strip You're going to get two different- looking squares. The same fabrics, but the placements are different. I was able to get eight triangles cut from that one strip with the pieces that were 2½" wide. If you started with a smaller strip or a larger strip your blocks are going to vary. I now have a total of eight squares and they are 6" squares. Do this to all of your strips. Because these seam are bias they can stretch very easily, so I'm not going to press with an iron. I'm just going to use my fingers. I'm going to press all of the seams, continuing the theme, going towards the dark. By just using my fingers or a wooden pressing tool I'm not going to have that heat to stretch it. I'm going do this to all of the blocks from all of the strips. All of the squares will have light, dark, light and dark. We can now sew them together in sets of four. Just match the lights and darks together. When you flip them you'll be able to sew, nestling those seams. When you get the two seams sewn, the center one will go nex. From the sets of four we can just keep building. And even though some of the lights were not really light and some of the darks were not overly dark, it still has a really nice look. Four strips of fabric gave us eight squares at 6". The blocks will be finished at 5½". The more strips you have, the bigger the quilt you'll get. As you sew the blocks together those seams are going to nestle. We want to keep that same nestling effect, so keep your seams always going in the opposite direction. When you do that, the last four seams that you do are going to be going in a circle. That will open up a little area in the center and it will look like a little four-patch. That keeps it flat but it also makes it so all of the blocks will always fit together. It won't matter what direction you turn that block; the seams are going to nestle together. Continue sewing them all together 'til you've used up all your blocks. When you sew them together you're going to have these little triangular centers. And as you sew the rows together, this outside will become an inside for the next block. When all of the blocks are together it does look like all of those seams have been mitered, but it was just straight stitching. Thank you for joining me today on SewVeryEasy. Feel free to subscribe and, as always, come on back. Let's see what we're sewing next time
in the sewing room. Bye for now!
