Here we go! The block youve all been waiting for... I know these blocks as Irish chains, but I think that only one of them is REALLY Irish and the rest are variations.   Ours is called "Alabama Variation", and here are some pics of others, so you can see what theyre all about. Although these three chain blocks are different, they will all have a similar effect in your quilt design as an alternate block, creating diagonal lines through your quilt top. If you have sampler blocks like we do, the chain helps to create balance and unity to the quilt design. Now I know what youre all thinking... Look at all those little squares and strips. But take heart, we are going to make this block the easy way.  Instead of cutting squares, we will be cutting strips, sewing strips and then cutting again. For you newbies, this is usually called strip piecing. It saves a lot of time. If you havent done it before, dont stress, its actually much easier than sewing all those squares and strips together. And once you "get it" youll start looking at your other patchwork projects to see how you can apply it to them! I suggest you make a cuppa and have a read to the end if this process is new to you.  I think it helps to take a good look at how this block is made up, to see where the potential " strip sets" are.  Ok so the first pic is our block. The second pic shows the outer strips sets ( we are going to call those the B sets) The third pic shows the midde strips sets ( we are going to call those the C sets) The last pic shows the inner strips sets ( we are going to call those A sets) There is one more potential strip set available to us in this block. It is the centre square and the neighbouring strips either side of it.   However, if you are fussy cutting this fabric because of the print, or using smaller ( not width of fabric) pieces than you can just piece this the regular way. (FYI I only had fat quarters of the fabric I chose for the centre square so I decided Id just cut mine into squares and not bother with the strip piecing method for this section.) Here are the measurements for the strip sets and photos of mine. B Strip set  (2 x)  2" x WOF strips (1x)  9 1/2" x WOF strip - background fabric C Strip set (2 x)  2" x WOF strips (1x)  6 1/2" x WOF strip - background fabric A Strip set (2 x)  2" x WOF strips (1x)  3 1/2" x WOF strip - background fabric And this is what a strip set looks like sewn together, and pressed.The black is my background fabric. (And YES I do have to apologise, because I've changed my mind on my fabric colours and am making my squares red instead of lime green. Sorry if that is confusing!) So you can see I have simply sewn the 2" strips either side of my black background strip. You need to repeat this for the 3 strips sets. And here you can see my strip sets on the ironing board ready to cut up.  Now that they are made and pressed, they are ready to slice into 2" segments.  At this point, if you've never done this before you may be having a little "AHA!" moment. Hopefully you are also thinking about how long it would have taken to make this block had you cut all the pieces into strips and square and sewn them together individually.  Ok so when youve cut up all three strip sets, you'll have piles of these units made So thats the strip sets done and dusted. Put them aside, now and lets get cutting the other parts of this block.  In this picture the grey defines the three remaining strips that we need to cut.   We also need to cut the centre square, and as we talked about this might be fussy cut if you have such a suitabe fabric.  Ok so the cutting for the centre square is easy. They are 3 1/2" squares, and youll need 12 of them. The rest are cut from your background fabric and are as follows A   3 1/2" x 2" ( cut a 3 1/2" strip and then crosscut it) B   9 1/2"  x 2"  ( cut a 9 1/2" strip and then crosscut it) C   6 1/2" x 2"  ( cut a 6 1/2" strip and then crosscut it) Once youve cut these you have everything you need to make this block.  BUT you wont have enough of them to make all 12 blocks.  As most fabric is roughly 40" wide, youre going to get 20 units when you cut it all into 2" segments.  Each strip or strip set unit is used twice in each block, so we are going to need 24 of each piece.  The best way is to cut 2 more background fabric strips- one at 9 1/2", the other at 3 1/2". They are both WOF. Cut the 9 1/2" strip in half crossways so you have two 9 1/2" x 21"( approx )  Use ONE of those 9 1/2" strips  - cut (4) 2" segments off and add to your B piles of background strips. Now use whats left of that strip ( which will now measure approx 9 1/2 x 13") to make a Strip Set as we did earlier in this lesson. Cut the strip set into 2" segments and add those to your piles of 9 1/2" strip set units.  PHEW!  You should still have a 9 1/2" x 21" strip left. Cut it down so it measures 6 1/2" x 21".  Pretty much it just a repeat now of what you did with the first half of the 9 1/2" strip, except now you are topping up your 6 1/2" piles.  The 3 1/2" strip gets the same treatment, using half for strips and half for strip sets. By now I think we all need a cuppa and a biscuit. Or a wine. But not too much because we are going to get sewing next. When you are ready to sew... This is the easy bit, and a little repetitive. My top tip is to press your seams out towards the block edges, not towards the centre. You should be pressing after each edge is joined. Keep to pressing, try not to squeeze the life out of your fabric with the iron, or your block will warp.  Start with the centre square ( 3 1/2") , adding the two smallest strips to each side( the A strips).  (Please excuse the washed out pics, my sewing machine light was on !!) Now add the smallest strip set ( the A strip set)  to the top and bottom Next we add the C strips to the sides And you guessed it the C strip set is next. Ok I think you have got this. just keep adding the plain strips to the sides and the strip sets to the top and bottom. Dont forget pinning the seams is the best way to get them to line up - and the pressing directions will help that too.  You should end up with something like this. Now make 12 more lol. As always feel free to email me at info@e-patch.com.au if you have any questions, or throw a question in the comments box below.  Please forgive me if we take a day or so to get back to you, we are at product launch stage with our EPP templates and that is sucking all the time out of my day!  

At The Quilting Patch, we have developed a technique we like to call "Starch Now,Sew Later". There's lots of reasons to do this -  here are a few... Going on holidays? One hour spent prepping your templates at the ironing board will mean youve got them all ready to sew when youve got a little sneaky sewing time. You can even sew in the car / train / cruise ship. Having lots of appointments? When was the last time you turned up to a drs appointment and the receptionist said " you can go right in"? Never? Me too.  Having your templates prestarched means no more wasted time in waiting rooms flipping through magazines you would never read otherwise. Sewing tin too heavy? If youre hesitant to take your project with you because its too cumbersome, this little step will change your mind. If youve prestarched your templates, all youll need to take is a needle, thread and small pair of scissors. ( and the templates of course! ) I carry mine around in a small zippered bag. It fits nicely in my handbag, and Im never held hostage in waiting rooms with nothing to do.  What you'll need... Eppiflex templates Fabric ( or scraps that fit the template + seam allowance) Fabric Glue pen ( eg Sewline) Starch - premade or home made Iron Our Eppiflex templates are made from heat resistant film, which means they are safe to iron on a medium heat setting. Caution : Continued high temp ironing will buckle the templates, they will still be usable but youll lose the accuracy you've come to love! OK... so with the caution done, set your iron on a medium heat setting. We mostly use 100% Cotton for patchwork, but it will still iron well on a less than "cotton" heat setting.  Make up some fabric starch or grab your favourite premade starch. My favourite is "Best Press" but when I dont have any I make my own with "Silver Star" Starch which is still available in IGA stores in Australia. The recipe is on the side of the pack. Follow it AND THEN WATER IT DOWN BY HALF. The regular starch is too strong and will leave white flecks on your fabric and bits on your iron. You can easily store any leftovers in clean jars.  (I also like to scent mine with essential oils so if you have some, add around ten drops to a 750ml -1000ml spray bottle of starch) Time to grab your fabrics, Eppiflex templates and glue pen... I am using hexi's in my example.  On each wrong side of fabric  ( or scrap)  dab a spot of glue and then place the template on the glue, centreing it, as in the pic below. Trim your seam allowance to 1/4 " or 3/8" if you like a little extra.  Lay your prepared hexi on the ironing board and give it a little spray of starch and leave for a minute to let the fabric absorb the starch. If you iron it straight away all you'll do is iron the starch off the fabric  The starch wont hurt the template, they wash up great.  Now fold each edge over  pressing as you go. I find this just gives the edges an even sharper line.  Your shapes are good to store for later use. The starch will wash out, but for now it means you can throw them into your sewing kit and pull them out at the next sewing stop, be that an appointment or holiday destination! Will they still need to be tacked??  This is a question I get a lot, and the answer depends on how you are going to sew them together.  If your sewing method requires you to bend the templates in half, then I would say YES to tacking. While starching holds the edges well it wont keep the templates from popping out under pressure! If your sewing method means you hold the templates flat at all times ( eg ladder stitching) you may not need to tack.  My suggestion is to give it a go and find what works for you.   

March... This Months block is called "Martha Washingtons Star" Here is the key and rotary cutting instructions for this block..  A - 3 1/2 " Squares B - 7 1/4 " squares,  cut twice on the diagonal to yield 4 triangles C - 3 7/8" squares,  cut once on the diagonal to yield 2 triangles D - 4 1/4 " squares, cut twice on the diagonal to yield 4 triangles My tip is to cut 1 background fabric strip of B ( 7 1/4" x WOF), take one square of 7 1/4 " off the end and use the rest to cut the various pieces youll need for this block. See Diagram below... So far you all seem to be doing a great job nutting out how to construct the blocks, so  I will again include the piecing order in a map style. but as always, feel free to yell out if you need help.  Heres the map... Ok so its a little bit different from last month where we just sewed 5 rows together. And you could sew this in rows like we did last month.  However, because it has a centre pinwheel that we want to make sure comes together really well in the middle, I prefer to sew the pinwheel first. This way if I have to unpick its less of a hassle.  So once the pinwheel is together ( unit 1), its just a matter of attaching the flying geese units to each side ( unit 2's) and then finishing off top and bottom with the square- flying geese - square ( unit 3s) I look forward to seeing all the March blocks coming together. Im working on the instructions for the offset blocks, so youll have those really soon to keep you busy as there are 12 of them to make. Till next month!