I've just designed a quilt and am trying to figure out how to piece the squares with a minimal number of cuts--I'd like to keep the pieces as large as possible so as not to disrupt the patterns too much. I'm hoping that perhaps someone who has done this before or who has more creative piecing experience than I have will have some suggestions.

The first square, an 8-inch square [Photoshopped image attached] has an on-point square within a 4-inch square. I'd like to keep the on-point square as a single piece of fabric as the print is a large one. That part isn't so hard. The next part, though, I'm not sure how to do. The 4-inch square is surrounded by strips which are 6 inches long (finished). I can figure out how to attach all of them except one in the full 6-inch length... I can't figure out how to start with anything but a 4-inch strip along the first side of the 4-inch square. That leaves me with a single 2-inch square of the first fabric at the end that I have to attach to the fourth strip to make it an 8-inch strip. Is there a way to force this to work?

The second square is 12 inches and is more complex [Photoshopped image attached]. It consists of the same on-point square from the 8-inch block but only two corners are "squared off" with the second fabric. The other two are surrounded by angled pieces. I was thinking that I would use tube piecing to create a 6-inch square consisting of the grass fabric, the outer diagonal, the inner diagonal, and a quarter of the on-point square but I *really* don't want to cut up that on-point square. :-/ The only other alternative I can think of is to split each of the diagonals into 3 or more pieces and I'd rather not do that, either.

If it helps envision what I'm trying to do, I've also attached a scan of my crayon drawing of the whole quilt... my husband claims my colored pencils are buried somewhere in my sewing room but I was in a rush to leave the house that day, so I was reduced to taking along my 7-year-old's dull crayons. :P The little blocks along the sides show how I was originally planning to piece the outer sections.. but they involve cutting some of the dark purple squares, which I'm trying to avoid. Each square represents 2 inches. The background, which looks white in the scan, is the grass fabric shown in the 12-inch block.

Is this something I can accomplish with paper piecing? I just paper-pieced for the first time last week, so I'm a complete newbie to the concept and still have trouble getting it right! If not paper piecing, does anyone have any other suggestions?

I love it, unfortunately I am still at the stage I follow every line of the pattern. The colors are wonderful.

It's easy to do the first block with all 6-inch strips. For that, you need to do partial seaming on the first strip. Here is a tutorial on how to do that:
http://quilting.about.com/od/piecing...tial_seams.htm

For the 12-inch block, since you need to do a mitered seam at the top anyway, I would just add mitered seams at the 2 corners (right and left points of the on-point square). The rest of the bottom would be basically strip-pieced, with a "set-in" corner on each side.

Clear as mud?

The outside strips on the 8 inch block can be done like the attached drawing -

It's called "partial seam technique"

The colored lines indicate where one stitches.

One starts with sewing only part of the seam of the first piece attached.

Then one sews the other three pieces on "as usual"

Then one completes the seam with the first strip being attached to the first block and fourth strip.

it's a useful "trick" to know.

you first need to know if you are going to make the blocks the way you have them drawn.."Y" seams and all...

I see many places where you really need to dissect the blocks to make it easier to cut and piece!

Sew a partial seam for that first 6" strip -- just enough so you can attach the next one in rotation. After three are completely stitched, go back and finish the seam of that first strip.

I would add seams: easier sewing and less waste of fabric.

While this is a great technique, she won't be able to use it on her surrounding strips in the corner blocks because she has them meeting on mitre. She will need to do Y seams or piece HST for those corners where the two fabs meet in the bigger blocks she has in the four corners. But for the center blocks it will work great.

Thanks all, for the suggestions, I appreciate them! :)

I'll definitely do the partial seams for the center blocks... I knew there must be a way to do that but I just couldn't figure it out. The diagrams were quite helpful.

I think I'm going to have to practice Y seams on some practice blocks before I tackle the big ones... I'll let you know how it works out!

--Erika

Beautiful quilt colors, sorry I can't help, but I know lots of these great people on here will chime in.