ok ... now lets see ...WOW my cursor came back...
I said I would put up another tute - so here goes!! [pasting what I wrote yesterday and saved to Word...]
I do love paper piecing because it gives you such great precision as a final result. However, having said that... I always evaluate a block I want to sew, whether it be a DJ or some other project, to see if it can be easily measured and cut to avoid having to take out that paper. I thank whoever it was gave us the idea of using the lighter weight child crayola paper, but I still prefer to skip the paper whenever possible. Many of my blocks that are totally PP on 'that quilt' I have adapted to a combo of PP and careful cutting and sewing... you MUST be accurate in those two steps! Accuracy means you have to know where to cut and where 'you' sew your 1/4" - not everyone sews the same. It doesn't matter that your seams are actually closer to 3/8" so long as you cut your pieces 3/8" beyond the sewing line
I will post 2 example of what I mean:
Block C-2 'streak of lightning' is actually this week's block ...well just got it finished last night! Instead of PP in the center, I cut strips 1 1/4" wide [you may want to cut them slightly wider and make your adjustments after the first seam.] cut two of the dark and one of the light each 4 1/2" long and stagger them. This will give you the top and bottom rows. Also cut 2 light pieces and one dark piece 2" x 1 1/4" for your middle row - stagger them 3/8." Make a 'template' of one row on tracing paper. When you have sewn the strips [or three pieces] together in the order in the photos, cut them according to the template, matching the tracing paper lines to the seam lines and adding 1/4" seam to each side. Your strips should be 1 1/4" tall.
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I made a template out of the corner section and cut two+ two in reverse, adding seam allowance. I sewed a ¼” seam on the larger side piece that will house the last diamonds to within ¼” of inside edge. Next I attached the finished edge to my center section. I cut the diamond out of my template and transferred the placement to my block for reverse sewing. I also hand sewed the remaining two corners.