Let’s alternate

On Thursday, we talked about starting on my newest scrap quilt using 2.5-inch squares.

Now it is time to make the alternating blocks and see the magic happen!!

The alternating block is made up entirely of half-square triangles and frankly, I was shocked when I realized that I needed 256 of them. Even though I was dreading making them, I used my masking tape guide and they were quickly prepared.

To remind you, I put a piece of masking tape leading from my needle to the edge of the machine bed. Then I line up the corner of the square with the needle…..

….and sew along, keeping the other corner gliding along the edge of the tape…..

It was fast and easy and I was soon ready to start putting them together, starting with the center four patch….

I was really pleased that most of the points looked good!

I kept adding each section in turn…..

As I got to the end of the piecing, I realized that I hadn’t counted well and didn’t have enough bits to complete the last block.

At this point, there was an interesting interaction with myself that went something like this…..

Well heck, I have the triangles for that last block but not in the right arrangements, so I need to scavenge what I was already pieced to finish the block

Then I re-counted and realized that I had one too MANY blocks…..

Or did I?

Then I realized that one of the blocks I was counting was one I had taken from the previously pieced stack with the idea of using it as my guide.

So now I am back to being one block short

But wait, what is this one on the floor…was it on the stack and I dropped it after I counted.

Oh heck……just put them on the wall and see

And yes, I was one block short!

It was quite debilitating to have to piece 16 more half-square triangles to finish this last block!!

You may notice that, when I first laid it out, I had all of the red squares going in one direction….

Although I like that, I really wanted to add a lot more movement to it, so I started turning some of the squares so that the “red strips” twisted and turned.

THIS is so much better!!

Now I just have to get it sewn together and still in the same order…

BUT, I have come up with an idea of how to make that happen. Come back on Tuesday for the details!!