Thursday, January 14, 2016

365 Challenge Block 4 Four Patch

This is a pretty straight forward block.




Cut your strips and sew them together.










Sub-cut and turn one AB unit so the darks and lights are opposite one another.








Stitch them together.  A cute little Four Patch.







Washing and drying fabrics to be used for precision piecing:
I prefer to wash and dry all my fabrics before I use them in a quilt.  Washing the fabric removes the chemicals and excess dyes used in the process of making the fabric.  Wash fabric in cold water with a small amount of mild detergent on a gentle cycle.  Tumble dry until just dry and remove from the dryer.  Lay flat until they can be pressed.

Pressing:
Press with a dry iron on cotton setting.  Use Mary Ellen's Best Press, a starch alternative, when pressing fabrics.  The starch adds body to the fabric that the washing process removed and will aid when rotary cutting, piecing and pressing.  To avoid stretching fabric damp with Best Press use a light touch with the iron. 

I love making scrap quilts with many different fabrics.  I purchase fat-quarter bundles to get lots of variety.  I often don't need to use a whole fat-quarter at a time so after washing and drying I cut the fabric in half, fold and store one half and work with the other half.  When starching and pressing I stack the fabrics one on top of the other,  take the top fabric off the stack spray with starch, take the next fabric place it on top of the one just sprayed and spray it,  I continue to stack and spray until all the fabrics are damp with starch.  I then flip the stack over and begin to press.  I press the top fabric dry remove it and begin pressing the next.  This is a quick and efficient way to starch fabrics that are all the same size.  I store the starched fabrics flat in a bin by colour.

Happy Stitches,
: ) Shelley

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