What is your favorite method to make a block easy?
 

There are so many easy ways to piece blocks nowadays or just piece a section of a block. If I watch YouTube, I get all kinds of ideas on shortcuts on making a hard looking block easy to make. Jenny Doan is an expert at this. There's tricks to making all kinds of blocks, too. What is your favorite method that makes a block that looks really hard really easy to make? Or to make a section of a block easy to make?

I break a lot of stuff down to HST on graph paper and go from there.

How do you find these on YouTube?

This is what I have done too -- it goes much faster.

When making blocks, I do a lot of chain stitching.

I agree with the chain stitching. It's pretty much mindless work. You get in 'the zone' and you can accomplish a lot! At times I see a pattern and it calls for many steps to get the same result as sewing 2 strips together and cutting 5" lengths.

If I have to press a block in progress, like a Log Cabin or a Snowball, I chain piece all the blocks in one round and take them all to the ironing board at once.

I like blocks like the d9p. Looks like you've sewn lots of little pieces together when you're done.

I agree with the disappearing 9 patch and be sure to make the 9 patches fron strips.

You "signature quotes" is one of my favorites. I love Lily Tomlin.

A trick I learned on the old TV show "Simply Quilts" was a quicker and more accurate way to cut fabric. You cut a large piece and then move the ruler to the left and continue cutting smaller pieces. For example, if you needed to cut 2in strips and you have a 12 in. ruler, make your first cut at 12in. then the next cut as ten, then eight, etc. you move the ruler not the fabric. By doing this your fabric doesn't shift and you get accurate cuts.

It never donned on me to do D9P that way. Thanks for the tip GagaSmith!