Month #4 Can you learn a new trick?

Hello to all those of you on Month #4.

Let's do some Card Tricks, shall we?

This month is truly not a bad month at all, and the gals in the class will back me up on this one.

Ready to do some rotary cuttin'?

Alright, having said that, I DO think everyone should go ahead and make their templates for Border 3A and 3B. Why? Well, not so that you can cut everything out by template, but just to have and use for reference and persnickety-ness. Once you've done your rotary cutting of this month's shapes, check them against your template shapes as well. You will have some extra pieces this month, so also use your templates to preview which of your cut fabric pieces will look the best.

Have I convinced you yet?

Oh, and by the by, that last paragraph pretty much applies to the rest of the quilt. Go ahead and make all your templates anyway, even if you don't think you're going to use them. You never know!!!

Some hints for cutting the Card Trick:

• Rotary cut, baby! Each of the 3 fabrics this month can be rotary cut (finally!).

For the 2 "3A" fabrics (which will become the "rectangles" or "cards"):

Cut (3) 2 7/8" strips from both fabrics. Cut these every 2" for 2 7/8" x 2" rectangles.

For the "3B" fabric (which will become the "side triangles" for the cards):
Cut (3) 2 3/8" strips. Cut these into 2 3/8" squares. Crosscut each square ONCE diagonally for triangles.

Note: I didn't list a specific number of rectangles or triangles to cut, as we are going to make these borders longer than they need to be and then chop them to size. You will have extra shapes, but use the extras to get the BEST parts of the fabric.

Before you sew:

Lay out one Card Trick border beside your sewing machine (or, if you are lucky enough to have a design wall, use that). It takes about 10 card trick "units" to piece together a border. Lay out just one side at a time, and make a mental note about the direction in which the cards are leaning. It's okay if your cards don't lean the same way as they do in the book (mine don't), but you do need to consistently lean in one direction.

Sewing the Card Tricks:

• I pieced the borders together one side at a time. I counted out 5 of my 3A pieces from one fabric and then 5 of my 3A pieces from the other fabric. Then I chain-stitched those pieces to 10 of my 3B triangles. That was round one. Then for round two, I fed the chain through the machine again, only this time I sewes triangles to the other side of my 3A pieces. You will be amazed at how quickly the card trick border goes when you follow this method. Once I had 10 "units" pieced together, I sewed them into ALTERNATING pairs (as in the book/picture), the pairs into quads, and so on until I had 10 units sewin together in a diagonal row. I gave it a quick press and checked to see if it was long enough. If it's not long enough, keep adding units until it is long enough. Once it is long enough, use your rotary cutter (again with the rotary cutting!) and squared my edges off.

• You are piecing diagonally, so make sure that you have 1/4" "dog ears" hanging off the ends of your piecing. If it looks wrong to you, take a pin and do a trial run. Adjust accordingly. Don't get frustrated by this step: you will have mastered diagonal piecing by the time it is all over and that is sooooo good for your brain! Lucky YOU!!!

• For the corner posts, pay attention to the cutting suggestions on the Color Key. Get the most kick-ass parts of your fabric. Those of you with reds will be able to get 4 squares that look exactly the same. Those of you with blues have a little more freedom: you will notice that I cut 2 squares of one "flower" and 2 of a different "flower" in my blue version.

Have fun and next month we'll discover why "diamonds" are a girl's best friend!!!

XOXO

Rhea

PS You should read my Love Letter to Kaffe... It's very funny (If I do say so myself!!!)