This past weekend, I realized that I NEEDED to do some piecing!! For the last few weeks, I have been sitting at Julio (my JUKI sit-down long-arm machine) doing thread painting and quilting.
I needed some time with Juanita (my JUKI home machine)!!
The week before, I had visited our guild Charity Bee and had picked up a stack of 185 six-inch squares…..

Yes….there is quite a variety there!!
I started looking for patterns and stumbled upon a pattern from “Theresa Down Under”

….and focused on the “Whirlpool” block…..

I did make one change to the design….. Instead of making the “diamond” units in two pieces (2 half-square triangle blocks), I chose to use one rectangle with the “snowball” unit on each end.
I decided to make the blocks 8-inches and to set them in a 4×5 format.
Now it was time to figure out exactly what I needed to cut.
I do this planning in three different parts.
First, I count the number and size of FINISHED units for each BLOCK……

Note that the 8 Background squares on the last row will be used to finish the corners of the print rectangles.
NEXT….. I plan the CUT sizes for each of the pieces…..

At this stage, I note how many I can get from each strip of fabric or 6-inch square.
Finally, I multiply those numbers by the number of blocks…..

AND, I have finally learned to calculate the background yardage needed……

Before I started making this last calculation, I would often run out of background before I finished the quilt!!!
I picked out the 40 squares that I would need and added a background fabric……

I chose to use my Accuquilt to cut most of the background pieces, starting with the 2.5-inch strips…..

Then I folded each strip and sub-cut it into 2.5-inch squares……

This was SO fast and within a short time I had all of these cut and ready to go……

Now it was time to cut the squares up into the needed pieces. Since I needed a series of rectangles that were 4.5 x 2.5-inches, I placed the squares on the Accuquilt and cut them into 2.5-inch strips…..

It was easy work to trim them to 4.5-inches….

So, everything is cut and ready to go…..look out Juanita……here I come!!!
4 thoughts on “I HAD to piece!!”
You are such a good planner.
I like the whirlpool block and I like your idea of how to make the diamond pieces.
I just can’t wait to see how this all comes together!
Thanks for the encouragement Andrea. This is all part of my “practicing better” initiative!!!
Happy for you that you can do the math. I have dyscalcula which really impedes my life in quilt making.
Well, Math is what I do for a living!!! I have always been a Math nerd!!!