Crumb Quilting Adventure - Making an Odd Shaped Block Square | Ep. 8

I'm continuing with making crumb pieces that will eventually turn into blocks following Darlene's directions.  

Crumb Quilting Adventure - Making an Odd Shaped Block Square | Ep. 8

Notes:

1.  She prefers to make the blocks larger than they need to be so she has 'good' pieces that are cut off and can be used in a different block.

2.  For pieces near to the end size, try putting on paper and drawing what shapes you need to add to make it the correct size.  'Build it out'

• Anticipate how it will look after sewn (remember you will lose fabric with the seam), try to have a straight edge (rather than sewing two pieces on to make it straight). So either trim it so it's straight, or plan where to insert a little piece so the edge will be straight.
• Maybe try a little piece of 'sashing' so the meeting of two pieced units is not full of seams!
• Have generous ends so they line up, put straight edged fabric on top to use as the sewing line.
• Place the new strip so it is wonky, so when you sew it on the block pieces get squarer.

Now that I have larger units sewn together I was able to use these tips right away!

First here is my larger than needed piece of work.  At first I thought to put the cut lines at the side.  In looking at it though I thought how the bottom seam then would have a lot of seams.

So I moved the template down.  This way I would get three pretty good pieces to be used in another block, and what remained was interesting too.

Cut, and I have the block!  Also see the larger pieces that can used in another block!

Now here is a piece that needed more to be the correct size. (Instead of using a piece of paper, I used the template.)  It is tall enough but needs material added to the sides.

I found two pieces that looked like they would be perfect.

But then I remembered the seams would take away a lot of fabric, so the extra pieces that had seemed so perfect, just weren't!

These next pieces were larger, but when I put the cutting template on the top, I could see again the seams would make it too small.

I remembered Darlene's suggestion to use the double strip piece as a sort of sashing to help minimize the number of seams when pieces were joined...  This arrangement seemed perfect so I took the pieces to the machine...

But the way I placed the fabric made a little corner be too short.  I had to add fabric.  I added so it was slanted.  The first piece wasn't enough, so I added another one.  I also sewed a piece of fabric to the part that would be cut off...

And here I have the block with three bits with parts that are large enough to add to another block!

Even though I didn't use the paper idea, using the template and being reminded about the seams really helped.

On to Episode 9 for more inspiration!

Aside:  My husband tells me the wind currents will not send the Brazilian smoke our way.  I searched and can't confirm that for myself.  But who ever will be getting that smoke will need to stay inside on some days to protect themselves...