Welcome to Week 3 of the Penny QAL! This week will begin piecing our blocks.
This will look a little bit different if you are making the FQ version or the version as-written in the Penny Quilt pattern, but you have lots of time to complete this step or catch up on cutting your fabric if you have gotten a little behind. Next week will be a catch up week and then in week 5 we are just cutting our blocks (which you don't even need to do if you are making the FQ friendly version).
The piecing for these blocks is pretty straightforward, but I have some tips for you that will help with accuracy and hopefully help you enjoy this week just a little bit more.
Scant Quarter Inch
This is really important for this block. If your seam allowance is a little too large, then your block will not be the correct size for the fabric strip that you add on next.
You should always be using a scant quarter inch when piecing quilt blocks. Amy over at Diary of a Quilter wrote a really great post to help you get that perfect scant quarter inch.
Pinning
I highly recommend pinning your fabric before piecing. It will help keep both layers of your fabric moving evenly through your sewing machine and it will keep the cut edge of your fabric lined up so that you get a good seam allowance.
My favorite method of pinning is to place a pin in the left corner, then one in the right corner, then one in the middle. After that, I place a pin about every 2". This may seem like a lot of pins but it makes a big difference.
Pressing
This is a little bit controversial but I am a big fan of pressing my seams open. You can definitely press your seams to the side in this pattern, but it will not result in any nesting seams.
I have recorded myself pressing my blocks this week and will be posting that video on Instagram and will include a link when I send out the newsletter on Friday.
How is your progress going? If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments! Note: I do have to manually approve each comment because I have been getting so many spam comments lately so it won't appear immediately but I will get to it as quickly as I can.
Make sure you are posting photos on Instagram using the #pennyqal hashtag so that we can all see your quilt!
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