The ECONOMY quilt...

Wednesday evening, the Red Rooster taught a free class called the Economy Quilt. Great concept. We were to come prepared with out blocks cut out and ready to trade. We needed to have 98 6" medium to dark blocks and 98 6" light blocks. These blocks will yield a 63" x 63" center and you can adjust that by making more or less blocks and adding borders. When put together, it resembles a checkerboard. The technique calls for 2 blocks, light and dark. You put these together right sides together and sew on each side of the blocks a scant 1/4" seam.

When you have the seams sewed, you cut apart the blocks starting at the one side of the seams and cut 2" strips across to the other side of the seam. You will have 3 segments with 2 segments sewn. You sew the left over 2 segments to the blocks to resemble this.

You then sew at the two edges right side together another scant 1/4" seam. You then cut this new piece into 2" segments from seam to seam. You will have 2 partially sewn nine patches and you will finish sewing the other units to this.
You end up with 2 nine patch units from the 2 blocks.

For some reason, I am really used to the full 1/4" seam allowance and this whole technique is based on a scant 1/4". I've yet to turn out a perfect nine patch. They all have issues being off a couple of threads here or there. This technique is definately a learning process and maybe I'll have it down by the time I do the 98th block. It is a great stash buster to use up all your old fabric scraps. The light portion is a 3 1/2 yard piece that I probably would never use in a month of Sundays, however, I am using it in this quilt. Because I lack the precision I would like to have with this technique, this will probably be a utilitarian quilt hahahaha.