Such A Cut-Up Quilt Progress and a Tip for Stretched Block

The top is finished and I like it so much better than the original.

Now the tip, which you may already know, but was new to me.

I knew the bias cut triangles were going to be a problem, especially the larger ones, so I spritzed them lightly with spray starch. (That's not the tip for you, I already knew that would help prevent stretching.) I had a problem with the spray can and soaked one of them. Afterward, I noticed that it shrank as it dried but ironing it straightened it out. Originally, the strips were 7 inches, which was actually good for me because after I sewed the pieces into 12 inch blocks, there was enough excess to square them up nicely. Still, when I put the rows together, I found that one was a half inch longer. It had two of the large triangles in it and they had stretched. I pinned them together, matching the seams and spaced out the "ruffle" of the stretched triangles and pinned them. Then I saturated it with the spray starch. When it dried, no more "ruffles" and it sewed together perfectly. After ironing, the starch relaxed and it looked fine.

Have You Ever Wanted to Cut Up a Quilt Top You Just Finished?

I do, and I did.

A few months ago at our quilt guild meeting, someone demonstrated this fast and easy quilt. Online, it's called a strip and flip. I think theirs was in 1930's reproduction prints, and it was really cute. I thought I'd whip one out this weekend, and since our little quilt group needed some lap quilts for men, I chose masculine colors. The top went together in less than an hour, and was indeed fast and easy. But the more I looked at the finished top, the less I liked it because it was sooooo boring, so I decided to cut it up and see if I could come up with a more interesting pattern.

I did have to rip out a few seams, leaving three sections of two joined strips. I also left the reversed strip as it was.

I first cut the two strip rows into squares.

Then cut each square into two triangles.

And then cut each triangle in half.

Then laid out the pieces so the patterns and colors are spread out and started sewing them back together.

I have one leftover strip but haven't decided if I am going to use it or not.