It’s dismaying to see so many Easy Street Quilts finished when I’m so far behind. The day after clue 5 was published I went out of town for the holidays so I was only able to do a little cutting for that clue before I left.
Clue 6 was published while I was gone. Clue 7 was published Dec 31, the morning after the night I got back. So, there I was 3 clues behind and clue 8, the finish, was published on Jan 1. Clues 7 and 8 were BIG! Lots of sewing!
New Year’s Day I sewed with my friend Linda at her quilt shop. I got a late start, around 11 am by the time I got there and got the store’s Janome Jem set up for use. My Jem was at a different shop for maintenance. I was supposed to pick it up on the 31st but they didn’t seem to be open. Linda let me use the shop’s machine so I didn’t have to drag my heavy Bernina to the store. I got some work done on the steps 5 – 7 but not as much as I would have liked. I tried not to look at blogs with spoilers until after I got at least some of clue 7 done but it was tough.
Piles of Easy Street parts ready for assembly!
Back when I started quilting in the 1990s, Mary Ellen Hopkins was a well-known quilt teacher and author. I’ve always been under the impression that the connector corner technique was her invention. She always threatened to send her squad of knee-cappers out to get you if you cut off the bottom part of the square you were sewing to. She maintained that only the middle layer – the bottom of the top square being sewn onto the bottom square – should be cut out. That way you always had a square to sew to the adjoining pieces even if your triangle didn’t exactly match the edges. Here’s a picture showing why she was so insistent:
See how the edges of the purple triangle don’t meet the edges of the turquoise square? By not cutting out the turquoise, I still have a correct edge to match to the next piece.
So far I’ve sewed all the triangles and 2.5 of the B blocks. I was anxious to start using the piles of parts so the A blocks will have to wait because they need purple squares cut for the middle piece. It’s going to take a while to get this finished now that I’m back at work – I was on vacation for the holidays. Plus, I have to help my parents who live 700 miles away move to an apartment and empty the house. I was doing so well at keeping up before the holidays.
The 4 corners done.
See other quilters’ strolls down Easy Street here.
Tags: Easy Street, Tips
Stash Overflow 
January 8, 2013 at 11:59 pm |
hi there…it is not a race. Enjoy the process and thank you for the Mary Ellen Hopkins reminder. To this day I always refer to my rotary cutter as my whicky whacker thanks to her, that and my ppm…personal private measurement. Quilt on!
January 12, 2013 at 11:20 pm |
Sounds like you are very busy! But the nice thing about patchwork is even if you only put a couple of pieces together at a time, eventually you get to the last piece.
I remember Mary Ellen’s “PPM”, too!
January 26, 2013 at 1:30 am |
Don’t worry – you’ll get it finished. There’s lots of sewing at the end but the results are so worth it. Your patches are looking great so far.
February 24, 2013 at 7:02 pm |
Yes, that can be very daunting to be so far behind! I was that way with Roll Roll Cotton Boll! I think it was September before I had my quilt done! But keep at it – you’ll be done before you know it. And this quilt is so pretty – you’ll be glad you did :*)