Just a few more...
Sorry for the delay! The holidays set me back as well as a migraine this past weekend. But here is the next installation to my step by step series!
Like I said at the end of the last post (which was about a month ago... sorry) I talked about showing you another method for quickly piecing together those log cabin blocks. This is called chain piecing.
So it starts out the same as the others, I am just going to do multiple blocks in each step. Just like before, I need to get one of my squares and put on the first strip, but when I reach the end of the square, I am going to wedge the next square right next to it without breaking my thread or cutting the strip like in the picture below. I will do the cutting later.
For this example, I am going to do 4 blocks at a time, but this method makes it super easy to do as many in a row as I can fit. This is what the 4 squares look like once I attach them all to the first strip.
Now nothing changes in my process. I iron all the squares away from the strip just like before and trim them all the same way. Instead of ending up with just one square, I get 4.
Now it just gets as easy as before. Using the same chain stitch method as before, I am going to sew on the next strip.
Easy peasy. This just makes my piecing faster and saves me thread. It's also a bit more exciting to finish multiple blocks at once.
So skipping ahead! I made a total of 50 blocks for this quilt. The goal was to do a good couch quilt about 5'x6'. This seemed really big spread out all over my floor, but I have to keep in mind that sewing all the blocks together loses a quarter inch on each side and I will need to trim off the excess corners.
The next step is putting it all together! (My favorite!!!) This is when it starts to pay off and get really exciting. This is also all kinds of easy compared to everything else. I just pick a corner and start by selecting 2 blocks that are right next to each other and sewing them together.
Now I press the new seam open. There are a few reasons I choose to iron them open instead of following my previous strategy of just pressing them away from my middle square. Pressing these open will cut back on the bulk of my seams when I quilt it later as well as help me to line up my blocks later. (Picture to follow)
Now I just need to do this a bunch of times until all of the rows are put together. This goes by really fast. Here is a picture of a couple of the rows once I put all the squares together.
Next I put the rows together. This is where pressing those seams open is helpful. By sandwiching them right on top of one another, I can easily see my blocks lining up perfectly.
Now that I have all the blocks put together I just have to trim off the corners so I have a straight edge. Unfortunately, I got excited and forgot to take any pictures of this process so I will just do my best to highlight how I did that on my next post. I will also be showing all the quilting which is where the real work and art comes in. This might take a few weeks to get to, but I will make sure to have it done ASAP! Thanks again for reading.
