Month #2: Piecing En Pointe

Some helpful hints for month #2:

• As you are cutting out your 32 triangles (also known as template "G") and you are very frustrated and thinking of some interesting words that begin with the letter "F," I have a nice trick for you (courtesy of the lovely Miss Liz Stebbins). Make a square out of four "G" templates placed side by side, touching each other, so that all 4 points meet in the middle of the square (sorry I don't have a picture for this). Measure the size of that square and use your rotary cutter to cut 8 of those squares and then cross-cut them each twice to get 32 little "F" triangles.

• For those of you doing the Hot Red kits, you'll want to get your Pansy border centered just so. Fabric is rarely printed straight on the grain, so instead of driving yourself cuh-razy trying to rotary cut, use the following trick: On the wrong side of your fabric, draw a line with your pencil or pen through the center of the Pansies for a length of about 13" (as in the photo above). Next, mark a line 3/4" above the center of the Pansies and another line 3/4" below the Pansies. These last two lines will be your cutting lines, and this way your pansies will be perfectly centered when you cut out your 1 1/2" strip!
(Ta-da!!!)

• Concerning the last, solid border for each of the colorways (that would be the Cobalt Paperweight for the blue kits and the Pansies for the Red), the book tells you to trim your 1.5" strip to 12" long.
Don't do it!!! Wait until you have measured the length of your square and cut your strip to that length (which may be a little bit more than 12").

Here are photos of what the finished blocks will look like and photos of your color keys.

Good luck, have fun.

As always, if you have any questions, put a bee in my bonnet!

XOXO,

Rhea