Start by cutting your strips Strawberries (4) 2 ½” strips x WOF (Width of Fabric) (5) 1 ½” strips X WOF Crust (4) 2 ½” strips X WOF (5) 2” strips X WOF Lattice (2) 4 ½” strips X WOF (5) 2 ½” strips X WOF Muslin (6) 2 ½” X WOF 9AM Step A: Sew a 2 ½” strip of strawberries to a 2 ½” strip of crust, the long way. Make two sets of these. Press to the dark. Put this step and the two 4 ½” lattice strips in a baggie and label it “A”
Step B: Sew a 1 ½” strip of the strawberries to a 2” strip of crust, the long way. Press to the dark. Put this step in a baggie and label it “B”
Step C: Make three more step B’s and add a 2 ½” strip of lattice on the strawberry side. Press to the dark. Put this step in a baggie and label it “C”
Step D: Cut two 2 ½” strips of muslin into squares. You will need 32. Put them into a baggie and label it “D” Step E: Cut your remaining 2 ½” strip of strawberries, crust and muslin into 11” lengths. You should have (6) 2 ½” X 11” strips of strawberries, (6) 2 ½” X 11” strips of crust and (12) 2 ½” X 11” strips of muslin. You will use these strips in Step F. 11 AM Step F: Making Half Square Triangles using Thangles. Place a 2 ½” strip of strawberries right sides together with a 2 ½” strip of muslin. Place a 2” Thangles pattern on top, and pin carefully. Make 6 of these packages using the strawberry/muslin combination and 6 using the crust/muslin combination. Sew on the dotted line, cut on the solid line. Press open. If you have put your muslin fabric on top, the Thangles should automatically force your seam to the dark. Count your HST’s! You should have 36 of the strawberry/muslin combination and 36 of the crust/muslin combination. You will only need 32, so throw out the four you like the least:-)) As you are counting, you can clip off the dog ear. Putting your thumbnail firmly in the center of the seam on the wrong side of the HST, tug firmly at the paper Thangle. It should remove easily. Step G: Open up your Step A baggie and remove the two sewn-together strips and the two strips of lattice. Cut them into 11” lengths. You are going to make Thangles again, this time using the 4” Thangles. Place the sewn-together strip right sides together with the 4 ½” lattice strip with the pieced strip on top. Put a 4” Thangles pattern on top and pin carefully. You will need to make 4 of these packages. Sew on the dotted line, cut on the top line just as you did in step F. You should have 16 HST’s but please note they are not all identical! 8 have a long strawberry strip and 8 have a short strawberry strip. (see illustration below) Separate these groups and put the ones with the long strawberry strip back in the B baggie.
1 PM Now, finally, you can start making the blocks. Here is a parts count if you would like to double check yourself: PARTS COUNT Step H: Sew your blocks from Step G together as shown. Make two sets. Press the seams to the dark as much as possible. Step I: Sew the blocks from the B baggie the same way, press, and put them back in the B baggie. Step J: From your HSTs made last hour, add 4 muslin squares and sew in this order:
Make Two Sets. Now put these together:
Make Two Sets
3 PM Step K: (I’ll bet you can guess) Sew two of these:
and two of these:
5 PM Step L: Make a cup of tea. Relax for a moment. Is it time for a fresh rotary cutter blade? How about cleaning the lint out of your machine? If you are ready, cut five 12 ½” lengths from the 2 ½” strips of lattice. (If your block is not 12 ½” square, adjust this size accordingly.) Sew these to the bottom of each of your four blocks. Now sew the blocks together in a long row, and add the last cut piece to the top. Press and measure through the center the long way. It should be about 58 ½” long.
7 PM Step M: Step C is your triple border for the right and left sides. Sew three pieces together, end to end, to make two pieces 58 ½” long. (If your measurement was different, adjust accordingly.) Pin carefully. If your sides are a little off, you can ease in the difference. Put the side that is too long down on the sewing machine so the feed dogs can help you ease in the difference. DO NOT just sew on the border without pinning! You are bound to end up with it being either too long or too short, and this will give you wavy borders. Press carefully.
Step N: Step B is your top and bottom border. Measuring through the center again, this time the short way. You might want to measure twice, once toward the top and once toward the bottom. The average of this measurement (it will be about 22”) is the length of strip you will need to cut. Pin this carefully again, then sew to the top and bottom and press.
9 PM Step O: Now you can bat, back (use the cup and saucer fabric), and quilt as desired! This is a small piece, destined for hard use on your dining room table, why not experiment with machine quilting? Baste the top, batting and backing sandwich with 505 or long machine basting stitches or safety pins or whatever method you prefer. Try them all. How are you ever going to know if you don’t try everything? Now, get out your walking foot and quilt straight lines down and across. Or… have you ever stippled? No, not tippled, STIPPLED. It’s free motion quilting. Drop your feed dogs if you can (its not critical, some people don’t), put your table topper on the machine and just move it around in a meandering manner while keeping your foot lightly on the pedal. You shouldn’t cross any lines, but if you do, don’t worry. Quilting is supposed to be fun. How about writing your name, the date and place in cursive along the borders? That way you will always have a memory of THIS SuperBowlSunday.
The Table Runner to the right is named "BlueBerry Pie"
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