Upping the Ante

No more nice Miss! It's the next instalment of the Mystery Quilt and this time I am increasing your workload!!
If you go to my Mystery QAL page HERE you will find the link to this week's instructions - there are two blocks to make this time, PLUS a little extra, what I call infill strips. The blocks in this Mystery are of different sizes and need a bit of help to become a whole quilt. In a couple of areas I have popped in panels of plaited fabric. Now when I originally did this project in class I was able to demonstrate plaiting so I am going to have a bash at a tutorial - this will be my first.

Select at least three different fabrics, cut into strips of 1 1/2" x 4 1/2".

Place two strips right sides together at right angles - stitch together using 1/4" seam.

Press open.

Place next strip across the seam just sewn, and stitch together.

Press open.

Continue adding strips on alternate sides until your strip is long enough for the infill strips - we will be trimming to 15 1/2" long so you need a good bit longer than this before trimming away the angles.It builds really quickly tho, so no complaining.

Now we need to think about trimming.

I have stuck a bit of masking tape along the 45 degree line on my ruler for the photo.....align this with the first seam line.

and cut.

Our strip needs to be 3 1/2" wide - a 3 1/2" ruler is obviously brilliant here, centre and trim both sides.

Now just the top to trim

Voila!

Plaited strips can be put to use in lots of places - borders, strippy quilts, table runners etc. You can vary the width of strips you use and mix different width too, a great stashbuster. You can even cut blocks from a plaited strip.

Enjoy.