Autumn Splendor - Clue 4

I am home from a wonderful 10 days at the beach.  I am relaxed, refreshed, and ready to get back on track with some projects this month and I'm betting you are ready for today's clue.

It is officially the first day of Autumn and fall is definitely in the air and I'm loving it.  The state fair is a week away here and art festivals are popping up everywhere.  My eyes explode each time I am outside for even a small bit of time.  Take a few minutes of your day to enjoy the beauty that is around you.  It's there -- just look around and you never know where it'll pop up.  Sometimes, we have to look up.

Your weekly reminder to please read all the way to the bottom before starting.  I always hear from people who missed something along the way when working it as you read the first time.  Let's avoid as many mistakes as we can and have FUN.

Cutting: Here are some notes before cutting:    You MAY be able to use some leftovers this week.  It depends on if you have already used some up.  After reading the whole clue, check your strips out and see if you can make any work.  There will be one more chance on the 1 1/2" strips in a later clue and for the larger size this week, you will need your strips to be at least 38" so it's pretty close to WOF anyway.  I used fresh strips.

All strips are assumed to be WOF (width of fabric).

Full Size:

Color 2 (Gold) -  10 (ten) 1 1/2" strips AND 6 (six) 2" strips

Color 3 (Brown) -  10 (ten) 1 1/2" strips

Color 4 (Orange) - 10 (ten) 1 1/2" strips AND 6 (six) 2" strips  Check your leftovers too.  The large pieces of orange that remain from a previous clue only need FOUR 2 1/2" squares cut from them and saved.  Yes!!  Make those cuts and then the remainder is free to use.  I cut mine as shown here --- from the ends.

I cut off a 2 1/2" strip (it is folded in half so I get two squares with each cut.)

Turn the cut sideways and cut your square.  You will be left with a 2" square.  Save it.  Ya just never know.

Smaller Size:

Color 2 (Gold) - 6 (six) 1 1/2" strips -- cut ONE in half  AND 4 (four) 2" strips (you MAY only need 3 strips - try before cutting the last one as you would only need 5" of it) AND

Color 3 (Brown) - 6 (six) 1 1/2" strips - cut ONE in half

Color 4 (Orange) - 5 1/2 (five and one-half) 1 1/2" strips.  The HALF strip only needs to be about 15" long so check your leftovers.  AND 4 (four) 2" strips (It is the exact same here as in the directions for the gold.)  You ALSO need to cut the FOUR (four) 2 1/2" squares from  the larger leftovers as instructed above.

Soooooo, if you were cussing me out last week with your 1 1/2" strips, I sure hope you worked out all the kinks because we are back at it again.  In the interest of total honesty --- I struggled last week and am so very glad i found that sweet spot on my machine, because this week I didn't have to rip out a thing.  They all came out the exact size I needed.  I did do one thing different --- I MEASURED WITH EACH NEW STRIP.  That way I would know exactly where the mistake was.  Are you ready to strip?

Here we go.

Unit 9 - Make 2 (two) full strips (large)/1 (small)

Layout your strips as shown.  This are WOF strips, mine are folded in half for the picture.

Start  with the first two strips.  Stop and Measure along the way.  First two should be 2 1/2", three should be 3 1/2", four is at 4 1/2" and the last one makes it 5 1/2"

Yes, it's upside down.

That's one set.  Moving on.

Unit 10 - Make 2 (two) full strips 

Layout

Checking seams.

And again

Two more strip sets down

Keep on strippin'

Unit 11 - Make 1 (one) full strip both sizes

Layout

Completed strip

Getting there

Unit 12 - Make 1 (one) full strip (large)/ Half strip set (small)

Layout

And final set finish.  Woohoo.

What now?  Well, just set these aside.  Yep, I'm not telling how/if they are getting cut yet.

Okay --- Now for those 2" strips.  Let's make some individual units and try something new perhaps.  Well, it was for me.  I'm showing the cuts for orange only.  The gold is exactly the same.  Find your strips.

You are subcutting 34 (18 small) - 2" x 5" bricks.  Four strips will give you 32 - Just hold off on the last two until finished cutting the next units.

With the remaining 2 strips, subcut 17 (9 small) 2" x 3.5" bricks.  When you finish, there should be plenty remaining to get your last two 2" x 5" bricks.

Here's the result:

Repeat for the Gold.

With those bricks, we are going to do a little sew and flipping.  Now, I'm being crazy truthful here that while trying to do the math on this unit, I REALLY didn't want to cut out little tiny quarter square triangles.  So, I tried something new to me.  Have you guessed?

Remember these?

Yep, all those little 2" half square triangles are being used this way.

Next units in the cue:

Unit 13 - Make 17 (large)/ 9 (small)

Unit 14 - make 34 (large)/18 (small)

Unit 15 - Make 17 (large)/ 9 (small)

Unit 16 - Make 34 (large)/ 18 (small)

This is what we hope to achieve this week.  I have never done a sew and flip with a half-square triangle so maybe this is old hat to a lot of you, but I'm having some on the job training.  I KNOW you can do these by cutting quarter square triangles, sewing them together and figuring out the exact placement on the rectangle OR you could have even cut angled orange and gold pieces to begin with.  That sounded like a LOT of work and itty bitty pieces.  So, we're going this direction and, yes, you will have a bit of waste.

Now, because I work ahead of ya'll, the first thing I had to do is press ALL my seams open on the little HST's.  That part of Clue 2 was fixed before release so hopefully, you're good to go here.  My deepest apologies to my pattern tester.

The next step is totally up to you.  You can eyeball the diagonal, draw a line, or do what I do.  I am pressing each little square  wrong sides together -- now you see why those seams needed to be open.  If you look real close at the lower triangle, it looks like it is not pressed even.  It is.  Things just don't stay put when I grab the camera and the angle throws it off.

Starting with the 3.5" bricks, lay one of the pressed triangles onto the brick the way you want it to end up.  Neutral across the top and brown down the left side.  Yep, that part is pretty important.

Open it back up and you'll see my fold.  

That is my sew guide.  I say guide because Bonnie Hunter taught me to sew one thread INSIDE the line - whether it is drawn or folded.  If you've ever attempted sew and flips by sewing ON the line, sometimes (always in my case) they come up short when flipped.  This prevents that by accounting for the thread taken up during the fold.  Genius.

Fold it back up, making sure it does indeed reach the top.

Open back up and trim off to a 1/4" seam.  Yes, I eyeball this.  A ruler sounds like way to much work once again.  Remove the trimmings and press your finished unit towards the gold.

If you're really crazy, you can sew a SCANT 1/4" seam on the little cut off pieces and wind up with a cute little 1" square.  Are you crazy?  I may do a few of them to use in my label or perhaps even small bed pillows to go with this quilt.  However, not today.

It's time to chain these together.  Go, go, go  Repeat the whole process with the 5" bricks.  All angles are the same.

Moving on to the orange bricks, here is the layout.  Notice that the neutral is on top but the brown is on the RIGHT side.  Again, that's important.

Other than the direction, everything is exactly the same so just stitch up both sizes of the orange bricks.

I actually love chaining, BUT I do not love trying to press these units without snipping them apart first.  My frustration level at the ironing board goes way high if I leave them in a chain and snip after pressing.  Press to the HST on the orange ones.

There ya have it, my friends.  I do LOVE these units and may find other ways to use this technique in the future.

TA-DA--- this clue is a wrap.  We have lovely long strips, cute little squares and some funky sew and flips.  It's coming together bit by bit.  Do I still have you wondering?  I sure hope so, cos it's mystery, right?

Until next week, stay creative ya'll.  It's not too late to share in the Facebook group - here's your LINK TO JOIN.  I'd love to see your progress.