Well here we are, ready to assemble your quilt top? Confident sewists can proceed how ever they would like, if you want a bit more direction then read-on!
Step 1: Block Layout
Layout your blocks according to your diagram. Match up the seams as best you can while laying out your quilt top. Check out this tutorial for a refresher on matching (butting-up) seams. Most of the seams do butt-up, although some do not and I will show you further down how I handled mismatched seams. If you happened to press all of your seams open, then no seam-matching is required.
Step 2: Sew Blocks Together into Rows
Pin (if that is your jam) and start sewing your blocks together in rows.
Step 3: Press Seams
Press seams according to the illustration below. The seam at this particular intersection (shown inside the dashed-circle and occurs between each block) can become quite bulky when that one little horizontal seam is folded back on itself (if the seam just sewn was pressed towards the 2″ dark square). My suggestion is to press this seam towards the half square triangle unit with the rectangle parallel to the seam (indicated by the large black arrows) as opposed to the HST/rectangle unit perpendicular to the seam. If you press each row in this manner, the intersecting block seams will butt-up.
Step 4: Sew Rows Together
Sew your rows together. All of the intersecting block seams should butt-up as well as the HST seams. Most of the other seams will butt-up as well, but if they don’t you can fudge things a bit. See that business inside the dashed-circle, I just folded the seam over so that things would butt-up and kept on a-sewing. I pressed the seam afterwards and things worked out just fine!
Step 5: Press Horizontal Seams
Press the horizontal seams open. You can check out this tutorial on how to press seams open without burning your fingers. The problem with bulky seams resurfaces in this step and unfortunately cannot be avoided by pressing like we did in Step 3. My best defense is to press the horizontal seams open to reduce that bulk. You could take a hammer to the really bulky seams (if you didn’t want to press them open) and hammer out the bulk. Its a real thing, google it if you want.
And look at that, a flimsy is born! Often this is where my quilt progress stalls out, but I have big plans for this little top and better get crackin’ (well, when the backing and binding shows up).
Is anyone interested in doing a bit of a quilt reveal/blog hop on September 12th? Oh my gosh, that is the Cloud9 New Block Hop, maybe I will extend things to the week after (September 19th, 2016). Leave me a comment and I will link to your blog on the 19th. If there are no takers then join me on the 19th for my ‘hopefully’ finished quilt reveal and giveaway goodies! I mean, there WILL be a giveaway either way!
Happy sewing!
Cheers,
Amanda
thismomquilts.wordpress.com 
Can’t wait to see the full reveal! i love the look of it so far. I’ve made up some lost time on my quilt in the past week but not quite enough for a finished top unfortunately. Look forward to seeing the others though.
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I totally did not finish quilting my quilt. I still did the blog post. I highlighted you gals that were quilting along and linked to the most recent progress posts (or images in posts). I hope that is okay with you. I really love how each quilter put her own spin on the pattern and really adore yours with the black background and the quarter square triangles in the centre. There is a bit of a giveaway at the end of the post, pop on over tomorrow if you would like! Thank you for quilting along, I think I might change the title to WIPing along, lol! Cheers!
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Thanks Amanda! At least I get to participate in some way. I’ll check out the giveaway.
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September 19 would be great! Thanks for leading this QAL and providing such a neat pattern, Amanda.
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You are welcome Sharon! Does that mean you would like to participate in a little blog hop? I am waiting for my backing and binding. The gal that I order fabric from happens to work just a few blocks away from me so I will meet her tomorrow to pick up my order. This will be a slippery slope from minimal stash to outta control I am sure. Cheers!
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Your fabrics are really, really lovely. I am inspired to think that I just might be able to have a finished top by Sept. 19t! Yep. A three day weekend next week, and some free evenings here and there…I just might be able to do it!
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I have never been involved in a blog hop. How does it work, I would love to try it.
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Hello! Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you. A blog hop is a little event where one blogger hosts and other bloggers write a post on a specific topic (for example all the bloggers involved have made the same quilt or are writing on the same topic). All of the participating bloggers will have their web addresses on the host’s blog post for the hop and then you can start at the blog host’s webpage and just hop around to the other bloggers’ posts. If you are interested in participating in blog hops, one really good place to start is the New Quilt Bloggers group that runs annually. If you follow Yvonne @quiltingjetgirl’s blog, she will have more information about the group. I think the group runs in the spring time each year. Hope that is helpful!
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Yes, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
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