Photos of my stripes for Karen in KY

This post is for my friend Karen in Kentucky.. :0) We talked on the phone this afternoon but sometimes you just need to show someone ;) ya know? At first I was going to just email her then I thought why not share it here with you all encase anyone else had the same question.

She asked me how big did I cut my squares. Mine are all cut 4.5" before making HSTs but you can use any size you like. I measured the part of the strips that was left over from cutting my 4.5" squares and ended up with a piece left over that was 3.25" on each strip... so if that sounds like a lot of waste to you - you might choose to make your squares 5" cut instead... This never occured to me until Karen asked me... :)

She also asked if I had any tips - and the only tip I have is to press everything the same direction as you go... meaning... after I joined all the HSTs into pairs... as I pressed I opened them up so that they looked like the bottom half of the finished block and pressed to the left (I'm right handed so this is the most natural way for me)

oh and pressing the HSTs came first but I forgot to take a photo before joining.. but same applies.

I had them all open up the same direction and pressed them all in the direction that I'm pointing in the photo below.

Now, back to joining the blocks... I found it very helpful that they are all pressed the same b/c when I go to join rows it is gonna be a breeze when they all nessel up and join together...

see I'll show you.... instead of pressing the WHOLE block the same direction - only press the bottom half to the left... then flip it around (pick up the two blocks and rotate them around so the side you just pressed is on top and then repeat for the bottom half - pressing to the left)

This is what the back side looks like.

see all those half blocks... yep all pressed the same direction ;)

so again... see my finger - pointing that all the seams on the bottom go one direction...

while all the seams on top go the opposite...

I didn't press open although you could.... but...

instead I did this little trick that I learned from this video I saw a while back from About.com

CLICK HERE to watch How to sew and Press Patchwork Quilt Seams

since learning this trick = everything nests perfectly for me now! ;)

Hope this helps! ;)

Love from Texas!