It is time to share your finished quilts, tops, or progress so far.
Mine is being quilted, but isn’t there yet. Maybe next week. Sometimes life gets in the way.
In the meantime, visit Katy and put your progress in her link-up (if you have a blog), or send her (or me) a picture and we’ll have them to share.
Thanks for joining us, however far you are. This has been fun and we hope to do another one (together or separately) sometime soon.
There are many different ways you could assemble your piles of blocks into a quilt, but for this quilt we’re going to assemble all those blocks into strips.
First, sort them out. Make 7 piles of 20 blocks each of the 4-patch blocks. Make 8 piles of 20 blocks each of the fence rail blocks.
And sew them together.
NOTE: FOUR of your strips of four-squares should have light squares in the upper left; THREE should have dark squares in the upper left. And, don’t worry too much if you make a mistake. It will be easy to find and fix with just a little picking out.
Nope, it isn’t complicated. You already did the hard part with the cutting and block creation.
Just don’t give up.
When you are done you should have 8 fence rail strips and 7 four-patch strips for a total of 15.
Assembly next week. Be sure to visit Katy and see how hers is coming along.
And, in case you are just joining us or missed a section, all previous steps can be found HERE.
How are your 4-patches coming? I hope very well. They are both endlessly interesting and a little mindless. Just chain piecing along…
This week we go to work on the rectangles. Make two piles–all the colored ones and all the backgrounds.
Piece one of each together. Repeat 160 times. Press towards the colored rectangle.
TIP: In case you didn’t know, pressing the seam flat, then pressing it open, helps prevent distortion. If you have noticed that your seams are a little wavy when you just open them up and press down, try this. It helps.
It is such a satisfying pile once you are finished.
Be sure to visit Katy and see how hers is coming along.
And feel free, too, to share our badge, created by a lovely person stitching along with us.
Join us again next week for the next step. And, feel free to ask questions. I’m right here.
After all that cutting you are probably itching to get stitching. I know I am!
First we’ll make 4-patches.
To create each 4-patch you need two colored pieces and two background pieces.
Stitch each colored square to a background square. Pause a moment and press the seam allowances towards the colored piece. It really does make a difference.
Next stitch the pairs together, putting the colored pieces on opposite ends and nesting the seams.
The next step of pressing has many options. I prefer to press this seam open. It gives the benefit of reduced bulk without the fussiness of pinwheeling the seams. If you haven’t tried this technique, you might want to on this quilt and see how it works for you.
Repeat over and over, watching your finished pile rise higher and higher until you have 140 4-patch blocks. YAY YOU!
We will be back next week to stitch together those rectangles.
Be sure to visit KatyQuilts and see her version using larger pieces. Enjoy!
Earlier this year, Katy shared a picture of this wonderful quilt.
I thought it was a great idea! A few weeks ago I cut out pieces to make a similar quilt. Katy and I got to talking and decided it was just too much fun to keep to ourselves, so we are inviting you to join us and build a Two And Four quilt of your very own.
I am building a version similar to the one above (based on 2-1/2″ squares and strips) and Katy will share directions for making a very similar quilt, but using larger (and therefore, fewer) pieces.
You will have 1-2 weeks to complete each step before we move onto the next. This will run at a fairly leisurely pace. We plan to have tops finished and ready to share via a linky party by mid October.
Your first assignment is to gather your scraps! You will need half light and half dark. Any color you would like! I’m using red, cream, and blue. Cutting directions will be posted August 24.
I hope you will join us for this Two And Four QAL. It’s a great way to clear out those scrap buckets!
As part of Daughter’s charitable sewing group, we have made up some “kits” of scraps and orphan blocks and labeled them “Adoptable Quilts.”
Here is one I recently finished.
The scraps came from at least three different sources, but they were able to come together and make something that someone will be glad to wrap up in.
It is a little smaller than I might have liked, about 55″ x 65″, but at least it isn’t a pile of unwanted pieces, and it felt “done” when I got to this point.
Wedding Dress Blue 