Here is what I meant in the last post by double sewing the diagonal seams. When the block units are sewn, usually one would cut 1/4" away from the seam and throw away the extra (yikes!). I simply sew another seam before cutting so that I have an extra (very small) half square triangle set. I am trimming them down to 1-3/4" square after ironing, and they will make some very cute little pinwheels. I think I'm going to make a third baby quilt from all the pinwheels. No sense throwing them away, right?
I use my presser foot as a guide, sewing a scant amount away from the left edge of the foot. No, this is not the standard 1/4" seam allowance, but it is sufficient.
Here I am showing the measurement of the seam before cutting. You can see that ideally it would be 1/2", yielding a 1/4" seam on both sides. This slightly smaller measurement has never been a problem in the past. I just might get one of these out of all my small meant-to-be-discards.
Here is my small pile of double sewn units ready to be cut and ironed.
Last, but not least, is the progress on this top so far. My children were doing part of their yearly achievement tests this morning, so I sewed while they were racking their brains for the correct answers. I know they are going to do just swimmingly like every other year!
You can see the red setting triangles in the picture here. They bring out the red in the fabrics. There are ten different batik fabrics in the blocks. This is about half of the quilt. The outer border will be PURPLE!!
