Single Block Quilt Tutorial Series - Windmill - Part 3, Sewing, Pressing and Subcutting

Part 3 of the Windmill tutorial continues with sewing, pressing and sub-cutting. 

Now that all of the strips are cut, (see previous post 2) sew each windmill fabric strip to a background strip along the length, using a 1/4" seam.  Chain piecing this step gets the job done quickly.  Press seams toward the windmill fabric.

Since I'm making 8" blocks, my windmill strips were cut at approximately 20", but since I used yardage for my background strips, they were cut at the width of fabric, approximately 42".  This allowed me to sew two windmill strips to one background strip.  Depending on the size of block you will be making, you might need to pre-cut some of your windmill strips and piece from one background strip to another.  This is perfectly fine, as long as the windmill strips are divisible by the sub-cut dimension.

Many of the fabrics I used for my windmills came from my scrap bin.  That being the case, on occasion I needed to make two or three smaller strips instead of one larger one.  Again, this can be done as long as the windmill strips are divisible by the sub-cut dimension.  In the case above, I'll get two sub-cuts from each of the two Hope Valley print strips.

Next comes sub-cutting.  Cut your strips to the appropriate width:

3-1/2" for a 6" block
4-1/2" for an 8" block
5-1/2" for a 10" block
6-1/2" for a 12" block.

Just 31 more for me to go.  Now its time for you to get busy.  In the next post will assemble the quilt top then move on to batting, basting, quilting and binding!