Welcome to my first quilt along!
We will be using the "Victory Garden" pattern, but only making 6 Union Jack blocks, so our quilt will be called "Baby Brit".
These are the six fabrics I have chosen for my blocks, including the white with red polka dot fabric for the sashing, see previous introduction post to the quilt along.
The first thing you should do before cutting fabric, is to read all of the instructions first, just like you do when you follow a recipe.
Under the heading cutting, it tells you exactly how many strips to cut out of each fabric.
I cut each of my six fabrics first. They were all cut into width of fabric (WOF) strips.
It always helps to have a cold drink of pomegranate lemonade to give you energy!
Don't forget to save your selvages if they are cute or colorful, you can use them in a selvage project sometime.
Usually cut mine l l/2" from the selvage edge, leaving some of the print on the selvage.
Usually cut mine l l/2" from the selvage edge, leaving some of the print on the selvage.
By cutting all my strips first, I was able to audition them together and see which ones I liked best together.
As I stated before, I don't really think it's fair to the pattern designer to give you the measurements, so I hope you bought the pattern :)
If you haven't bought the pattern yet, maybe you will when you see how easily this block goes together and how cute it looks !
According to the directions, I sewed the skinniest strip to the widest strip.
Now sew a medium strip to the skinny strip.
Sew on two more strips to make the piece symmetrical.
On the back, pressed the seams flat. I like the look of the striped strip standing out so I pressed the seams towards the stripes.
The red striped strip is so skinny, it barely looks like there is a seam, when they are pressed.
Lay the template (included in the pattern), on the "five strip" as shown and trim for a total of four rectangles. Be very careful to line up the corners of the rectangle with the center of the cross fabric.
BE SURE TO FLIP THE TEMPLATE AFTER CUTTING TWO RECTANGLES SO YOUR STRIPES WILL GO IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
Match up your four rectangles.
Next pull the two strips that match the red striped skinny strip.
Sub cut one of the strips into four pieces.
Lay the pieces to each of the rectangles on their inner horizontal edge to the create the inner stripe as shown.
Sew and press the seam toward the striped fabric.
Pull the strip that matches the cross fabric (light blue polka dot).
Sub cut ONE piece for the horizontal cross piece and set aside.
Cut the remaining strip in half. Sew each half to the remaining portion of the striped strip as shown.
Press the seams toward the striped fabric.
Sub cut this trio of strips into two vertical cross pieces.
Your leftover strip will be put in your scrap basket.
Lay out all rectangle pieces as shown.
Sew together top rectangles to top vertical cross piece.
Next, sew top and bottom strips to horizontal cross piece to complete flag block.
This is how the block should look on the back.
All of the seams are pressed toward the skinny red striped fabric.
The block is finished!
Isn't it beautiful? I am really pleased with the finished block.
flickr account.
Our quilt along will continue next Monday, August 13.
