Easy Street Part 5

Hi Everyone,

I was looking forward to the next clue that Bonnie would be releasing Friday morning for her mystery Easy Street and it was there when I woke up early that morning!  She said that there would be no more flying geese!  I wouldn't mind any more, as the technique is pretty speedy for me, but variety is nice, too.

So, we were to cut 64 3.5" squares and 128 2" squares.  For my color way it was still working with navy and medium blue!  Luckily I really like the combination but it will be fun to start adding the red into the mix!  So I cut the 2" squares from my medium blues--I think I've been exclusively using 2" strips from this color, so it was easy to pull out leftovers and to cut more.  I'm hoping there won't be much more from this color family as it is starting to get a bit skimpy.  Then I needed to cut 3.5" squares from navy, and again I wanted LOTS of variety, so I pulled navy blues that I haven't yet used and I only cut two squares from each fabric.

Bonnie said she has never used the unit we were to make in a mystery before.  I may have made some of these in the past, but I don't remember specifics.  We were to draw a line diagonally across the small square and do the "stitch and flip" technique of adding triangles onto squares.

There are lots of different ways to do that technique including ways to avoid drawing the line by using the Angler 2 or other ways, but I decided that I wanted the accuracy of drawing the line, so that is what I did.

 

I'm guessing that many of you know that it makes life easier to put the pieces on some sandpaper so they don't slip.  I made this "board" out of a heavy peice of cardboard with two sheets of fine-grade sandpaper taped on it.  I've had it for years and love it for projects like this.

 

 

You can move the ruler  and draw the lines without the pieces shifting all around.

Once the lines were all drawn, we put one square on top of the larger square, matching a corner and stitching right next to the line--not right on top. 

 

Then the square is pressed over into the corner, so that the unit looks like the above photo.  If your small piece lines up perfectly with the navy square, the corner of the navy square and the "waste" of the medium blue can both be trimmed away.  If it isn't quite perfect, just trim the medium blue bit and leave the navy square intact so that you have an accurate 3.5" square when you are finished.

Next, we did the same thing in an ADJACENT corner.  I'm remembering that for a recent Schnibble-- the Xs and Os one, we used this technique in opposite corners.  If you do all corners, you will have a snowball, or square in a square block.  But we are making these "house" units.

 

Sew on the edge of the line and then press to the corner and trim away the seam allowance.

 

 

 

They really make a nice house-shape, or fat flying geese, etc.

Since Friday was my day to get laundry done and packed and the car loaded to leave early Saturday, I gave myself until noon to get as many done as I could.  I ended up finishing them all before 11 AM.

 

All done!

I want to wish you all a very, Merry Christmas!
JoAnne