Sunday, November 25, 2012

Easy Street Clue 1

Sketti anyone?  No butter or ketchup needed!  20 strip sets
Today I got really busy and made the cute little 4 patches for clue 1 of Easy Street, Bonnie Hunter's new mystery on Quiltville, http://quiltville.blogspot.com/,  Look for the Easy Street tab at the top.  I needed to make 192 of these patches.  I remembered that I had made lots of 4 patches for another quilt and that there was a "nesting" technique that might make it go faster.  After sewing a grey strip to a B/W background strip, I cut these strips into about 21" lengths.  I matched each strip set to another strip set that had a different B/W print.  After smoothing and nesting them carefully, I cut these into the 2" parts to make the 4 patches.  But since I cut the 2 parts together and they were already paired up, it went pretty fast.  I timed how long it took to sew the pairs together and I did about 200(I have some extras.)in 35 minutes.  Then I only needed to twirl the seams and press. 
Here's the link up to more fun with other quilters and their blocks!

Nesting the strips
The 4 patch on the bottom is one I sewed and tested for size.  The stack shows pairs ready to be sewn together.

My 200 4 patches with swirled seams and pressed.




9 comments:

  1. Very nice sets Ruth Ann!If you'd like folks to be more welcome to comment on your blog, you might consider removing the "word-verification" from the settings under posts. Bonnie had requested that we do that earlier this year, but it's up to you.

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    1. Thanks Vic. Thanks for the reminder about the verification. I don't think many people normally look at my blog so I didn't even think about it. I will go do that!

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  2. Nice tip on sewing the 4 patches. I did not do that on all of my strips may be why it felt it took longer than it should. Yours look great.

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  3. Yeay! No hassle commenting! I'll be back more often for sure, THANKS!!!!

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  4. Your 4 patches are looking good. Have to remember your tip of nesting and cutting.

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  5. My goodness you're fast! I didn't get to start until last night, but I got most of my 2" sections cut today and hope to make 4 patches throughout the week as I have time. Aren't Bonnie's mysteries fun!!!

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  6. Your 4-patches are looking lovely. The music fabric is gorgeous as is your grey constant. Looking forward to step 2.

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  7. Looking great, I am so excited to see these all come together. 35mins...I believe that is called pedal to the metal!! Quilt on!

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    1. It helped that I layered the strip sets and cut a set of pairs together. It made it really fast to sew. Just straightened a bit and feed it under the pressure foot.

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