A new pattern

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks (more or less) working on a new pattern. I thought it would be so easy, after all, it’s just squares, half-square triangles, Flying Geese and a couple of quarter-square triangless.

Oh, my!

It’s not going to be a difficult pattern. There are three different sizes of HSTs, and of course, the QSTs start as HSTs. Several sizes of rectangles, the squares. Some of it is strip pieced. The Flying Geese are made with the Studio 180 Wing Clipper II ruler, or the no-waste method. The difficulty was in coming up with clear instructions on how to cut the required pieces with the least amount of waste.

Normally, I like to cut as I go rather than doing all the cutting before sewing anything. That just didn’t work this time–I had to come up with a system of cutting and labeling everything first.

I first started with leftovers from the bed quilt I made for us last summer/fall to make a wallhanging. I soon realized I needed to start with the yardage I had listed for the Fabric Requirements. So I packed that away and found a line of fabric with the yardage I needed. I did a lot of planning in EQ7, and cut my fabric as it should be cut, sewed most of the blocks. I did enough to know that the Fabric Requirements are correct.

I packed that up and now I have started on my third one. Now that I think it’s correct, I want to start at Step 1 and go all the way through, following the pattern.

For quite some time I’ve been using the Quilt in a Day Triangle Square Up ruler for trimming my HSTs. I like that it takes only 2 cuts to trim–trimming is done before pressing open. I discovered yesterday that I can use the ruler also to square up QSTs.