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Roberta is made entirely from 2-1/2" strips. The blocks are about 7-2/3" square. My quilt has 100 blocks, and is about 76 inches square before borders. |
| Look at your stash of 2 1/2 inch strips. Sort them into dark and light piles. Put the medium value strips into whichever pile is skimpiest. Make a strip set from four dark strips and another from four light strips. Iron all the seam allowances the same direction, it doesn't matter which direction. Note: The really frugal way to do this is to sew lots of dark strips together end to end, and then make a really long dark strip set. Do the same with the light strips. This will mean that you will have pieced sections in your blocks, but almost no waste. The stashbuster way is to gleefully throw away all the waste after cutting your blocks! |
| Lay a dark strip set face up on your cutting mat so the seam allowances are pointing away from you. Trim up the left edge (right edge for left handers), cutting off selvages and raggy ends. Take a light strip set, and place it face down on the dark strip set, so that the seam allowances are pointing towards you. Square up the end and place it on top of the squared up dark end. Take some care in positioning, so the seams are 'locking'. Pin every foot or so, to hold the strip sets together nicely. |
| Measure the width of the strip set - it should be 8-1/2 inches, if your seam allowances are 1/4 inch. If you are very far off 8-1/2 inches, call YOUR width "X". Substitute "X" where I say 8-1/2 inches below. Cross cut the strip sets every 8-1/2 inches, keeping the light units in place over the dark ones. Draw a diagonal line on each unit, from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. Pin if necessary. Sew 1/4 inch on either side of the diagonal line, and cut on the line. |
