paintmejudy

<DIR><DIR>Are we ready to begin? Yes, I am sure you are, so … here we go. I will give the 5-color-quilt cutting first, then the scrappy quilt.

You will cut WOF (width of fabric) unless otherwise indicated. Anything not cut today, as well as any leftovers from the strips, will be set aside and used later. (Colors D and E are not cut today) I have used the traditional half-square triangle method using 4-78“ blocksand made a small drawing if you need a reference on how to do it. There are plenty of places on the internet that give better pictures, for instance Fons and Porter magazine. (But you can use your favorite method -- specialty triangles, Thangles, Laundry Basket to name a few. Cut the strips as directions for your method calls for. I will not be giving any cutting instruction for these other methods to avoid confusion).
Gather the three 1-¼ yard pieces of fabric and determine which of the three 1-¼ yard pieces of fabric you want to use for the background. This will be color C. The others, naturally, will be colors A and B.

From Color A cut 2 WOF strip 4-7/8” wide, and then cut into 16 squares that will measure 4-7/8” square.

From Color B cut 2 WOF strip 4-7/8” wide, and then cut into 16 squares that will measure 4-7/8” square.

From Color C cut 2 WOF strip 4-7/8” wide, and then cut into 16 squares that will measure 4-7/8” square.


To make a half-square triangle
1) place an A and a B right sides together. Match edges.
2) Using a pencil or a disappearing fabric marker, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner, then add lines ¼” from the center line. Sew just to the inside (away from the center line) alone these two lines.
3) Cut on the original diagonal line. Press to the dark. Trim to 4-½” if needed.
4) You now have 2 identical half-square A-B half-square triangle blocks measuring 4-½”. Using an additional 7 A and 7 B squares, repeat this step. You will end up with a total a total of 16 A-B half-square triangles.

Using 8 A and 8 C, repeat the above to make 16 A-C combination blocks.

Using 8 B and 8 C, repeat to make 16 B-C combination blocks.

You will have 16 each of the A-B, A-C and B-C combinations of half square triangle blocks, a total of 48 4-½“ blocks.

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SCRAPPY
(NOTE: if you are using 5” charm squares, cut 4 WOF color C at 5” wide, make 32 of these Color C blocks. Make your half-square triangles as explained below about assembling the colors, and then trim to 4-½“ squares after cutting on the diagonal. This will be much easier than trying to cut the charm squares into 4-7/8“ squares.)

Note: if you are have trouble making half-square triangles come out to proper size, you may want to make all your blocks 5” square then trim to 4-½” after the diagonal sewing.

Traditional method of half-square triangle blocks:
From your color C, the background fabric, cut 4 WOF strips 4-7/8” wide, and cut into 32 pieces that will measure 4-7/8” square. From your selection of scraps, cut 48 pieces that measure 4-7/8” square.

Pick a light and a dark from your 4-7/8” scrappy blocks. Make half-square triangles from these two blocks, giving you 2 identical 4-½“ blocks. Using different combinations of light and dark, light and medium, and medium and dark, put together 15 more of the combination half square triangles, when cut and pressed you will have a total of you will have 16 of the 2- color combinations.

The last picture below gives you an idea of how I mixed up the colors on the A-B combination blocks. I took the picture and then assembled my sample - it was at that point I realized I should have made more of a contrast on the blocks with the background and scrappy fabrics, but didn't re-do them. My bad!

Pick 16 of the scrappy and put with 16 of the color C. If your background C is very light, try not to use too many light light scrappy colors with the C. Same goes if C is medium or dark - you want a contrast. Make half-square triangles - you will have 32 of the scrappy/color C half-square triangle blocks.

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I know this is a big lesson, but next week’s will be a bit less time-consuming if you need to catch up. Please, don’t feel under pressure to complete all this by next week if it is too much for you to do in one week -- it is just that many of the gals Pmed me asking for more to do in one lesson than I had done on the other mystery.
Next posting will be June 2[SUP]nd[/SUP].
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