Well, this week we are voting here in the United States for our President and I got to tell you this outcome of this election is going to be fascinating. So, in honor of that, I thought I would do a quilt block called Voter’s Choice and that is exactly what we are doing. We, the voters, are choosing. This one is going to have some little different shortcuts in it so you are going want to stay tuned and see how I handle this and welcome to quiltblocklibrary.com. This is Penny Halgren showing you how to sell this Voter’s Choice quilt block together. We will start right now.
I am always looking for a shortcut to sewing blocks together and one of the things that I noticed this block is that it got these strips and you could take each one of these little bars and cut them out as rectangles and sew them together individually. However, because I am familiar with strip piecing, what I am going to do is make all this—all kind about once and the way I do that is to cut longer strips out of the fabrics. So, as you can see this is white-blue-white. So, I have got two strip of white with blue that is going down the center. So, I am going to do that and—what I did was to figure out how much. I just took this—I am only making one block. So, I just took the measurement for here and multiplied it by four. So, I am making this 3-1/2 inches. So, I am going to make this strip somewhat next as 14 inches.
So, the first I am going to do is take a white strip and sew it to a blue strip and I will be right back after I have got that finished. I got the blue strip and the white strip sewn together. So, now I am just going to add this white strip on to that unit and we will be all set. We will have enough fabric to make those three patches.
These are all sewn together so I have got enough to make those three patches and I am going to cut that apart in a few minutes. Now, for the center patch, we have got all the pieces cut out and I am going to strip these pieces together. So, the first thing I am going to do is fold the right side on to the left side and I am going to sew those together. I have left these pieces attached and now I am just going to sew the third side on. So, it is just one, two, three, and put those up.
Now, that the rows are sewn together. I am just going to put this so the top row together, the top two and then the bottom one. You can see I have got the top two rows sewn and I am just going to put this bottom one up and sew it. Got this block sewn together to this little patch and it actually goes, it is this way inside the block. So, I think I will just put that down on my frontal board ready to sew it together. The next thing I am going to do is sew this corner pass with triangles together. So, these are pretty simple and you can see I just had a sack of them. I need four of them for each block. So, I am just going to run this through the machine. Now, the block is all laid out and ready to sew it together. So, I am just going to pick up the center row and fold it on top of the left row and sew those patches together, change sewing them. So, I am going to leave them attached in between the patches.
These pairs are finished and I am just going to add these on to finish each one of the rows. One of the things I have noticed as I was sewing this together is that this center block is very stretchy or the center triangle is very stretchy. So, you are going to be very careful when you sew that together. The other thing to notice is that this center stripe does not match that triangle. So, do not try to match those up. Just try to get them centered and again just be sure that you do not stretch this patch as you are sewing it this thing together because it will want to do that.
Now, we have the three rows on together. So, the next step is just to take the top row, fold it down and as you can see I still have the bottom row attached. That way I do not have to keep on lining things up and checking to be sure that everything is in its right spot because right now they are all attached and they are not going to get out of place. So, I am just going take this and carry it over to my—move it to my machine and sew it.
The top two rows now are sewn together. So, all I need to do is bring the bottom one and sew it up. The one beneath that you want to notice as you are sewing these patches together and these rows together is the way your seam allowances are facing and you just want to be sure that when sew the next seam that you continue to point the seam alignment in the same direction that it was originally sewn. So, I am just going to sew the bottom one and we will be finish with this block. There you have it, Voter’s Choice and I am ready to iron it and show it to you after it is all flat, nice and pretty.
There we have it, our Voter’s Choice Quilt Block. All finished and ready to go. So, happy voting and peaceful piecing. This is Penny Halgren signing off from QuiltBlockLibrary.com. Voters choose one.
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