Cutting and Piecing (not quite yet) – Chapter 3

I’ve picked out my fabric for my “prototype/pattern writing” quilt. 

Remember, this all started because Marilyn had five yards of fabric she wanted to use.  These are the same fabrics you saw used in one of my Letty’s Bags (you can see it here).  I love this fabric and I think it will work well for this new quilt.

But, before I start cutting into this fabric I need to do one more thing.  All my planning so far has been on 1/4” graph paper so I haven’t really seen it full size.  Without seeing it drawn full size, it’s hard to visualize the proportions.  So my next step is to make a block (once again using paper) real size. 

This is a block that is made oversized and then cut down.  So I did the exact same thing but not wanting to cut into my fabric yet I used freezer paper.  Here are all my tools for a freezer paper block.

For those of you that don’t know what freezer paper is, it’s sort of like butcher’s paper. It’s plain paper on one side but the other side is shiny/waxy and when ironed will stick to it’s self. 

I cut my large oversized starting square, made my cuts with a ruler and rotary cutter, sewed it back together, by overlapping my 1/4” seams and finally trimming my block to size.  I also write more notes right on the paper so that I have it for when I start writing the actual pattern.  By going through all this, I re-adjust some of my measurements until it looks the way I want it.

I guess it’s finally time to cut the real deal fabric.  I’ll do that in Chapter 4.  See you then.

Enjoy,