Moda Blockheads: Block 31-Dot Dash

10/9/2017

Block 31 is a welcome relief after struggling with the Alternate 28 block this weekend. This one goes together very quickly and looked like the perfect opportunity to put some bees in my garden.

For Lynne Hagmeier's pattern visit her blog HERE

I did not feel the need to use starch on this one, just cut out my pieces and was ready to sew.

I drew a diagonal line on the back of the A squares. A piece of fine sandpaper on a clipboard keeps the fabric from moving as you mark the fabric. I used a pencil to mark my fabric rather than a pen because the line stays on the finished piece and I do not want it to show through.

I sew with my needle along the right side of the line, not right on top of it. If I sew directly on the line I will be a little short when I fold over the fabric.

In order to demonstrate a little trick I have folded my fabric a little wonky to show how you can solve a common problem. Here you can see that some of the fabric from the bottom square is showing above the green plaid.

Instead of cutting away both fabrics as I normally would I cut just the green plaid and leave the bottom square intact. That way I will still have a square that is the right size when I go to sew all of the parts together. Look again at the photo above to see how that will help.

Since my green plaid triangle does actually cover all of the square underneath I cut both layers away-cutting 1/4 inch from the seam and then trimming as need to make sure my block still measures 3" square.