Hey quilter's....hope all is going well. I'm finally going to briefly wrap up my quilt-a-long. First of all thank you for the prayers. This is not the time to get hurt or anytime actually. Unfortunately Mrs. Claus is going to have some I owe you's this Christmas which is not me. I alway's love to make my Christmas gifts and yes most of the time I'm finishing up at the last minute. Needless to say....my "unexpected trip" aka the craziest fall ever has taught me a valuable lesson. But here's the funny....I did try to sew on "pain meds" but I could not sit at my sewing machine due to the pain in my ribs. The other funny is I messed up my measuring of strips, and yes I mean I rotary cut all my strips between standing and sitting. I then realized that you should never do math on pain meds. When you see block below you'll see what I did and then had to do because of my wonderful math. So then the "advanced block" was born. Yes....my own block design did not measure to a 5.5 x 5.5 square due to me cutting all my strip widths wrong. Again....never should you do math on pain meds. I seriously cried....then I thought calm down this is not the first time you messed up (not on pain meds) :-) so figure it out. The funny thought was I actually told myself...well at least this time you had an excuse for your stupid mistake. So I decided to add a solid strip on each side of my block...then coming out to the exact 5 1/2 square that I should have in the first place. If y'all know me by now I'm going to turn a negative into a positive....due to my crazy mistake I ended up using more of my "scrap fabric"....win...win...afterall :-) But because of all this craziest that is when I decided I was in too much pain and to take it easy and follow doctors orders. Serveral weeks later I'm still sensitive in that area of ribs but getting better. I'm able to sit down longer without half the pain. What a journey this has been and lessoned learned. :-)
Well in case you've patiently waited for me to "finally return" to the quilting world.....here is the rest of the quilt-a-long. I did love some of the comments that we're told that my design was so easy and they figured it out on their own. Actually that made me so happy 'cause that's what I'm all about....a fun way of quilting and less stress quilting. :-)
Steps for the "strip 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 block
Please note the pic below is the "advanced step" with my "mishap" of my strips being 1 1/2 wide and with the sold strips added at each side of block...
*Rotary cut your scrap pieces to be 1.75 wide by the desired length of your strips adding in your 1/4" seam allowance on each strip piece.
Ex. first row is (2) 2 1/2 in scrap strips so you would cut 2 strips ea @ 1.75 x 3" to for a finished strip of 1.75 X 5.5....this is all with your 1/4" seam allowance.
Second row....(1) @ 1,75 x 2 and (1) @ 1.75 x 4....
Third row....(1) @ 1,75 x 1 1/2 and (1) @ 1.75 x 4 1/2
Fourth row...(1) @ 1.75 x 2 1/4 and (1) @ 1.75 x 3.75
Sew trips together and finger press as you go. Then sew your strips together starting with left side first and finger press each strip or iron if desired. You will end up with a finished square of 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 which allows for your seam allowance when sewing blocks together to end up with your finished 5" blocks. (see pic)
Tip....if you decide above method is a bit much....remember my theory is "less stress quilting" so just rotary cut your fabric strips 1.75 x 5 1/2. Just remember to randomy piece your stash fabric pieces to give it still that "scrappy design" :-)
Advanced tip...do same method as above but with a seam with of 1.5 and add a solid strip of 1.5 x 5.5 on each end of block...you will have 6 strip pieces in total that you will be piecing together (see pic)
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