9 FQ's and a Strip

Have you ever found a strip in your scrap bag that you thought was really great;  but, alas there was only one lonely strip. Not really enough to do anything with didn't really go with the other scraps, so what to do?

 That polka dot was so great I just decided to pull from my new bargain stack of FQs (see 9-19 post) to make something featuring the colors in that strip.

Really simple, quick and easy, 9 FQs,  and a strip.   48" x 58"
Here are some quick tricks to make this super quick and easy project.

- Cut the "theme" strip (44" x 3.25") into 3.25" squares (makes 13) but you only use 12.
- Choose 4 coordinating FQs  for the middle section and cut into strips using the long side = 4 - 4.25" x 22" strips.  There will be a small leftover strip.

- Note:  Not all FQs are created equal.  If a particular yardage measures less than 44" you might come up a tad short on your FQ.  This happened to me (see 7th pic down & last pic in post)  I used the selvage to compensate. (white section on left end of block)  Doesn't bother me, but if you want full clear strips measure your FQs first.

- Lay one strip face up on your sewing machine and sew 3 consecutive patches face down on strip. don't iron yet.

- Cut the tail end off this unit. Place it face up under your presser foot, flip the previous unit around and sew all 3 patches to this side.  OK now iron toward the strips and cut. I call this the sew-cut-sew method.

 Any time you can assembly line something, sew and then cut, it will save you time and ironing!

- Now take one of the other 4.25" strips face up put your newly cut and ironed 3 patch unit face down and sew,  take the next 3 patch unit and sew it down on the tail of the same strip. etc.

- take another strip and place it face up, flip the previous unit around and sew those two units onto the next 4.25" x 22" strip.

- You end up with 2 blocks that are joined at one end.

- Separate these two blocks and cut the last 4.25" strip in half and assemble the last block separately.
- Repeat to make 12 blocks.
- Assemble your blocks randomly 3 x 4 like my top or however you like. I alternated the orientation of
  the block's seam lines.  Row 1= sideways, up, sideways  Row 2= up, sideways, up  etc.  You could     also see them all going the same way. (refer to quilt top photo)
- For the border- cut 5 FQs into quarters = approximately 9" x 11".  You will need 18 of the 20.
-Decide which patches you want for the corners and trim to 9"x9".
-As you can see the long end of the quarter-FQ is more less the same length as the blocks.  You may need to trim a smig off some depending on the length of the fat quarters. Blocks are actually 10.75" square unfinished.

- When assembling any top I always try to divide rows and seams into the shortest lines of sewing = the least amount of intersections to make errors.  Errors tend to multiple over distance. Refer to the picture of the whole top at the beginning of this post.  Sew two sets of 4-trimmed 9" x10.75" patches for the sides. Then Sew two sets of 3- 9" x 10.75" patches plus corners patches to the top and bottom.

The constructions is quick and easy. The success of a quilt like this is in the fabric choices.  Choose fabrics that pop and that you love, with that special strip as your guide and you can't go wrong!  Cheers, CW

PS- Any feedback on these instructions would be greatly appreciated, especially errors. thanks!