Raise a Ruckus Mystery Quilt - part 2 sewing

Now, onto the easy sewing -- the beginner block, the Dessert.

Now you need to go to your stack of cut 3 1/2 inch squares, the light stack and the dark.

You will be sewing these two pieces together, so that you will have 48 {80} dark light rectangles as shown in the photo below.  Right sides together, and sew along one side using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  This is great practice for a beginning sewer in keeping a straight line and it also helps to over come that inherent fear of sewing through a finger as you guide the fabric along the sewing line -- I do want to say - I started using a sewing machine when I was about 7 years and now with almost 50 years of sewing ( pretty close to) I have never had the misfortune to get my finger between the needle and the fabric!  Tho' I do hear that it does happen -- just pay attention to what you are doing and don't let a commotion somewhere else in the house distract you.  It is a machine, remember.  It keeps going even if you don't keep your eyes on it!

Press (iron) these open and make sure that the seam allowance leans over the dark fabric.

Now, you should have 48 {80} dark/light rectangles that look like these two piles.  Now you will sew along the long edge here so that the dark and light are in opposite corners.  This block, in all the sewing and quilting books is called a four patch -- anywhere you go with quilting, this is usually the first block that you learn to put together -- it makes up an almost unlimited number of more complex quilt blocks.  When you make these blocks you can create anything from a diagonal pattern to animal or other biological shapes just depending on how you place the colours...

Now once you sew these, being careful to match up the seam so that the previous seam exactly matches.  When you place them right sides together the seam allowance on one will face one way and the other will face the other way, that way they will nestle together and it becomes very easy to see where they should fit together.  Use a pin at this junction if you feel that you need to, but don't sew over the pin, pull it out of the way, just before you get to the pin -- which also means, don't sew too fast!

Your next step is to make another four patch block but this time you use the four patch (s) that you have just created as part of the larger four patch.

Now you will sew your already made 4 patch(s) to your already cut 6 1/2 inch squares of medium fabric.  If you have used two different medium fabrics or a random number of these 6 1/2 inch squares, this is where you will notice if your choice of medium value fabrics are appropriate -- you do not want them to be too dark or two light!  If you are unsure as to whether you should use a certain fabric, place it beside your 4 patch block and make sure that the 6 1/2 inch square is not blending exactly with either the light or dark.   When you lay these, so that right sides are facing, make sure that each end matches up exactly, sew all the pieces the same direction.  Stack them up as show in the photo above and make sure that you sew each together the same way.

Finally, now you have 12 large rectangles with a 6 1/2 inch four patch and a 6 1/2 inch medium square sewn together -- now in the same fashion as above you will match up that centre seam, place the two rectangles right side facing and sew them together so that  either your dark squares  go from corner to corner or that your light squares go coner to corner -- which ever way you prefer -- in the final piecing together of the quilt, the "line" this creates will run diagonally across your quilt, so your eye will follow that line most strongly.  Do you want your quilt to appear more light? or dark?  In my case I wanted the darkest colour to seem the strongest.  You should now have 12 blocks that are 12 1/2 inch x 12 1/2 inch {or 20 blocks for the full size}.

For those more experienced, you may already have the idea of what this whole quilt will look like, but at this point take a little coffee break and we will continue to put all the elements already sewn together, into one quilt top.  You will be finished in a couple of hours!

What was it that occupied me yesterday?

I got a new TOY!

A keyboard!  When I was a child, I took lessons from the time I was 8 til my family moved to a farm outside the city when I was almost 11 years old.  That move effectively stopped the lessons although we still had a small piano for a while after the move, but I was not so inclined to practice and I am afraid I disappointed my Father in that my interest changed from playing piano to something more akin to thinking about "rock and roll" music that came from The Monkees and the Rolling Stones and the Beatles;  the piano was then pass along to a cousin who took up lessons (then ultimately didn't get any further than me and disappointed her parents too!)

Well, now, the time seems to have come where I actually want to re-learn what I lost so long ago...  A new thing for a new year, but not a new year's resolution.