Five Quilt Blocks Made from Strips

Create Your Blocks from Strips One Block at a Time and Then Sew Them Together to Finish Your Beautiful Heirloom Quilt.     Whether you are on the go or creating a quilt in the comfort of your home, finishing your quilt one block at a time gives you the power to make it perfect - no hassling with the bulk of your quilt as you are either machine or hand quilting; stitch blocks together as you finish them so you know exactly how large your quilt is; check out your quilting design as you go. Take advantage of the multiple benefits of working one block at a time, whether your quilt uses strips, squares or circles. Read more - - -

 

For years, the only quilts I made used individual patches - squares, triangles and diamonds cut individually.

As you can imagine, it took hours to cut the fabric, sew the pieces together to make the quilt top, and then hours more to hand quilt the layers.

Then someone suggested that quilters could save time by sewing strips of fabric together and cut them apart as units.

And at that moment, a whole new world opened up for quilters making traditional quilt blocks such as Roman Stripes, Rail Fence, Country Charm, Cats and Mice and other blocks that were groups of rectangles (or bars) sewn as patches.

It's fun to make quilts using strips, and they are easy to make (great for beginner quilters) and offer some fun opportunities for creative color schemes.

Below are 5 different block designs using simply strips of fabric. You'll also find tips for sewing strips together so your blocks will be perfect squares.

Because you are sewing longer pieces of fabric together, it is easy to get "off track," so a little caution is in order.

Each block is simple to make. Just sew strips together, cut them off to the correct length, and then sew them together as patches to make the block.

Each block is defined as a four-patch, five-patch, or nine-patch, and the widths of the strips to sew and square patches to cut are written below the block.

 

 

 

 

Generally strips will be cut from selvedge to selvedge on your fabric. How wide you cut the strips is up to you and the design of your block. Remember to add the seam allowance, so that if you want a 1 inch strip (finished size) you are cutting fabric strips 1 1/2 inches wide. Otherwise, you may get some surprises.

While it's fairly straight-forward to sew two or three strips together and then cut them off into shorter units, when you start sewing several strips together, there a few things to keep in mind:

• Make sure you check the accuracy of your seam allowances before you begin - as you can imagine, if you are just a little bit off in each seam, by the time you have the whole unit sewn together, you could be off by a measurable amount
• Check the pressing of your strips - if you are anything like I am, sometimes, I iron a fold in the strip that is not on the seam line. This decreases the accuracy of your final piece.
• If you are sewing more than about 4 strips together, occasionally begin your stitching on the opposite end of the strip. If you sew several strips together always starting at the same end, your strips may tend to migrate down, and you will have a piece that looks like it has been stair-stepped. By flipping it around and starting to stitch on the other end, this will even out.

When I sew strips together, I rarely cut off the selvedges before I sew.

Maybe it is because I am a little lazy, but I haven't found a need to do that. Often you will end up with uneven lengths of fabric strips. This is because not all fabric is exactly the same width. Be sure you cut them off before you start cutting the pieces for your patches or blocks.

Depending on how you will use the strips and how much fabric there is on the end, you may be able to attach a new strip onto the bottom of the strip that is extra. I tend not to do that, and I trim the ends off and save them for another project.

 

© 2006-, Penny Halgren. This article courtesy of http://www.How-To-Quilt.com. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.