A New Fun Technique

One of the things that I did at the retreat was to play with a pack of 5-inch charm squares that I've been wanting to do something with.  I'd also had an idea about how to do a sew/cut/sew project.
So, the idea was to make this block using a quick-sew technique:

 I made this little top starting by sewing them together into one big grid of squares!

1. sew 5-inch squares all together-- I started with 48 squares.  I sewed them into a 6 x 8 grid.  It is important to use and even number of rows and columns!

2. cut a strip from the left side of the grid

3. move it to the right side of the grid, and sew it on

4. do the same for the top and bottom of the piece, so that you have a unit like in the photo- squares in the center surrounded by a 1/2 width border

5. then cut through the center of every other square!

 If you just want a pile of the main blocks to sew into a quilt, just cut the strips crosswise at this point as well and in this example I would end up with 12 blocks!  Starting with the 5-inch squares, the resulting blocks now measure 9 inches with the seam allowance-- they'll finish at 8-12".

However, I decided to put in a small sashing.

6.  So if you want a sashing, delay cutting the strips into individual blocks.  Just sew the sashing strips in between the columns.

7.  Then, cut the unit cross-wise and sew in the sashing strips going the other direction.  you can move the strips around so that there is a bit of variation in the color distribution of the blocks.

8. Now the unit is all sewn together again. 

I like this technique a lot! I think I need to figure out a larger project using this technique.  I think that the sashing in this example would have been better using a plain white so that the blocks stand out more. Live and learn!