Easy Street Step One -- Link Up!

I'm so excited that Bonnie's new mystery quilt has started!  If you haven't heard about it...what are you waiting for??  Go check it out!!

 Step One calls for 192 4-patch blocks.  Easy, right?  :)  In true Bonnie style, the quilt will be scrappy looking, but there are ways to make the job of sewing these 4-patches a little easier, without having to cut a million 2" squares.  We are making 3 1/2" (unfinished) squares for this project.

Here's how I made mine!  I cut my fabric in to 2" strips...since most of my fabrics were FQ's, I cut WOF pieces in half.  I find it easier to work with 20-22" strips of fabric when sewing and pressing strip sets.

After the strips are sewn, press the seam to the darker fabric.  Then layer two strip sets on top of one another.  Make sure the seams are butting up against each other too.  Then cut the strips in to 2" sections.  Since I'm going for scrappy, I separated the sections into stacks of matching "twosies"...otherwise, you could keep the sections layered together and just sew them up.  I hope that makes sense!

Now, here is a pretty important step for something I'm going to show you a little farther down...this is a tip that Bonnie shared at the workshop I took in March and it makes assembling quilt blocks so much easier!  Feed your "twosies" through the machine with the dark fabric going in first (this set is already sewn...I just forgot to take the pic earlier!)

It's hard to explain this part, but right at the intersection, finger press the seam in opposite directions.  Give the square just the slightest little twist and the seam right at the intersection should pop out and unstitch itself...if not, use your seam ripper to release one or two stitches....can you see it there in the center?  (click picture to look closer)  This will not work the same if you did not put the dark fabric in first when sewing twosies!!

Use your thumb and index finger to finger press the little intersection flat...then take it to the ironing board...

Give the block a little press with a hot iron...you'll see that the seams are pressed to the "light" fabric.  Don't worry about it...you know it has to happen sometimes!  You'll know you did it right if you have a teeny-tiny four patch in the center....

....and voila!  You have a perfect 4 patch that lays nice and flat.  It takes a tiny bit of extra time doing the seams this way, but it also allows the seams to butt up to each other when sewn to another 4 patch.  It will save you time later either repressing seams or having to twist them to get them to butt up to one another.

So here they are!  All 192 4-patches!

 I'm ready to see what Step Two holds...we'll see on Friday!

Monday, I'll link up to Bonnie's blog...I'm excited to see how everyone else is doing too!  Check it out HERE!

Happy Quilting!