Civil War Crossing Quilt Tutorial, Part Three

Sewing the Block

First Off, Useful Tools:

1)  Roxanne’s Glue-Baste-It. 

It allows you to place a very small dab of glue exactly where you want it.  This is a great accessory not only for making Miniatures in Minutes but for any number of times in the sewing room where “a little dab will do ya.”  (Sorry.  I couldn’t resist.  Though making that allusion indicates my age and, if you get it, probably indicates yours as well!)

2) Clover Mini-Iron.  This allows you to iron very precisely exactly where you need.  It helps save scorched finger tips and smeared printer ink!

3)  Freezer paper.  I always iron a square of freezer paper onto my ironing surface.  As you iron the foundation, ink can rub off.  Better it be onto easily removable freezer paper than your cloth ironing cover.

Sewing the Foundation: 

It is important to place the glue dots where indicated, most particularly if you are using printer paper.  Placing them as shown means that you will not need to wet the foundation later in order to remove the paper.

1)  Place the foundation printed side face down.  (If you are using printer paper, place it over a light source so that you can see through to the printed side markings).

Place glue dots as indicated.  I used blue dots to generally indicate where the glue goes.  Note that all of them are outside the dashed lines that indicate the outer edges of the seam allowances.  You should use very little tiny dots of glue – just enough to adhere the fabric to the paper.

2)  Place your first set of fabrics right side up.  Use the inner printed/dotted and red drawn seam allowance lines as your guide for placement.

3).  Place glue dots as indicated by the green dots.  (If you look carefully at the above photo you can see that I had already placed glue dots on it.  See how tiny they are?)

4)  Place the next set of patches face down (right sides together) over the first set.  (Sorry about the shift in block fabric). 

5) Flip over to the printed side of the foundation and sew down the seam line, top to bottom without stopping, sewing through the seam allowances.  (I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of this, but it’s an easy step).  Be sure to shorten your stitch length a little. 

Then, flip back over to the fabric side and once again add glue dots as indicated by the green dots. 

6).  Using your Clover Mini-Iron, iron the second set of patches open.  Then, once again, apply glue dots as indicated.  (TIP: The reason you drew that second seam allowance line is so that you know where the fabric placement should go.  If your fabric patches are either short of or past the red line, use the red line as your placement guide.)

7).  Reapeat the steps: Place the next set of patches, right sides together.  Flip over to the printed side of the foundation and sew the sew line.  Flip back over to the fabric side and place glue dots as indicated. 

8)  Iron open. 

9)  Now comes the magic part.  Fold one section over onto the next, fabric sides together.  Sew down the seam line.

To make life a little easier, sew out a little beyond the edge of the seam allowance. 

10)  Open and finger press.

11)  Repeat with the other open section.  See how sweetly all those seam intersections perfectly line up?

12)  Flip over to the paper side of the foundation.  Fold back one of the seams.  Place your ruler at the quarter-inch mark along the seam line and trim off the excess paper.  Repeat for the other seam.

13.  Now place your ruler at the edges of the block and trim off the excess paper and fabric, squaring off the block.  Be sure not to trim off the seam allowance!

14.  Remove the paper and press.  Sit back and admire how perfectly your block came out and how easy it was to accomplish.

That may all sound like a lot of steps, but once you understand the sequence, it goes very quickly.  Fast, easy, and accurate.  That’s why I love Fold and Sew. 

Make up a total of  twelve pretty little blocks.  (Well, actually, make up how ever many your heart desires).