Easy Street Part 4

Hi All,

Friday morning Bonnie released the next step in Easy Street.  More flying geese and some cutting.  The geese were easy enough, it was the cutting that took the most time for me.

Friday morning it also became abundantly clear to me that my cell phone was on its last leg and I should get a new one before the old one died and I lost stuff.  I got one Friday night and it has been a frustrating weekend for technology, believe me!  We even had to stop back in the cell phone store today to get some questions answered.  It is mostly my own fault--if I had just got the newer version of my old phone, it would have been pretty easy, but nooo, I had to switch phone brands, systems, etc.  Ugh.  Anyway, it is my own fault and I should be functioning more or less back to normal soon.  (I hope.)  What is it about getting a new "smart phone" that makes me feel so dumb?  When you factor in the fact that my home email wasn't working all weekend, too, it just hasn't been a technology-friendly few days.

Luckily I could escape to the quilting room where everything was normal and intuitive!!  I began by cutting the pieces for the flying geese.  I had leftovers from before, both cut and in strips, so that didn't take too long.  I was a bit nervous though with my color selections.  More blue and blue units.

I'm trusting my choices though and am reminding myself that it will turn out to be sensational!  I like these units.  They look like chevrons or little arrowheads!

The cutting involved red fabric.  I'm also working on and off on a quilt for our new king-sized bed and for it I also needed a big variety of red.  Bonnie said to use as much as possible, so I decided to go through my red bin and cut as much fabric as possible. 

It worked out really neat to cut for both projects at the same time.  For the king quilt, I needed 7" and 4" squares.  For Easy Street I needed 145 3.5" squares.  This is what I did.

I got out the pieces of fabric (mostly fat quarters to half yards and smaller "chunks.")  I pressed them and layer 4 pieces at a time.  Here you can maybe make out the four different fabrics.

 

I straightened the edge and then cut a 7" strip.  The width of the fabrics is about 18" plus or minus an inch here or there.

 

So that gave me a strip 7" x 18" (or thereabouts)

 

So I turned the strip and cut two 7" squares.  Seven twice is 14", so that left a chunk left over that is 7" x around 4"

 

 

I trimmed that chunk to 3.5"  Now it is 7" x 3.5"

 

 

Then I cut it in half, giving me two 3.5" squares for Easy Street!  No waste!  I LOVE THIS!

 

 

Next I cut a 4" strip off my layered pieces and subcut into the 4" squares that I also need for the king quilt.

I was able to cut for two quilts in roughly the same time as it takes to cut for one!   I got out 70-75 different fabrics, pressed them, cut the pieces, and folded up the rest of the fabrics and put them away, and I only had to do it once for both projects.  I only cut two squares from each fabric for Easy Street, so I will really have a variety!

Boy this next step is the one that hope is easiest!  We are leaving Saturday morning for Christmas and won't be back til the following Friday, so I have to get the next step done on the same day so I can link up next week! 

Have a great day everyone!
JoAnne