Thursday, October 2, 2014

J-7 Chicken Tracks



Using the pre-cut 1 inch strips,
cut 2 background pieces 1 x 4.5 inches.
Cut 1 coloured strip 1 x 4.5 inches.

Stitch together.
Press to the dark.










Trim the end of the unit to straighten the cut. 











 Cut 4 units that are 1 inch wide.

Now I am having difficulty formatting so bear with me.

Cut 2 coloured strips  1 x 8.5 inches
Cut 1 background strip 1 x 8.5 inches.
Stitch together.
Press to the dark.
Cut into 8 one inch units.

Lay out all the pieces like this.
Stitch them together to create four nine-patch squares.

Cut 5 background squares from the pre-cut 2 inch strip.


Lay out the small nine patch and the background squares into a new nine patch.

Now comes the flip and stitch method I learned from Eleanor Burns when I did my first log cabin Quilt in a Day that took me a year and a half. 

Flip the blocks in the second row back onto the blocks in the first row.
Pin. It saves frustration later.


Chain piece the blocks together by sewing right off the first block and onto the second without cutting the thread.

Make sure to leave the these connected.


Press lightly to the solid square.
The seams have less bulk this way.

Lay out the nine patch again.



Flip the pieces from the third row back onto the middle row.



 Pin.



Sew together like before.
Lay it out again to make sure it all fits.

Now pin the last 2 rows together.
Sew carefully.
 At this point, I found that my corners did not line up as perfectly as I would like. Will I re-do that seam?
Possibly.
But not now. I have a plane to catch in 2 days to visit my sister in England than my aunt in Poland.  But first, all 25 geraniums must be brought in for the winter and there is a local quilt show just 3 km up the road.

Blessings,
Chris