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Sew Smart?

Alex says I am sew smart. "Get it, Mom, SEW smart?" Actually, necessity is the mother today. Here is how it all started. In our continuing saga of Mary's Log Cabin, I mixed up Logs 11 & 12. I used the longer in place of the shorter. 48 blocks. When I got to Log 12 application, and was finally forced to recognize my mistake, it was too late. I had already trimmed the too-long Log 11s, so I couldn't rip them out and trade them to their rightful place. Luckily (to say the least), I had some full 42" strips left over, but not enough to risk a cutting error. Instead, I decided to attach my cabin blocks directly on top of the remaining strips in chain-piecing fashion. Voila! This is SEW easy! I will never cut bars again!! I will never have to cut squares again either!!! Except for the first piece of a block, of course. From now on, I only cut strips, chain piece, and clip to size.
So how is it that I missed this super simple piecing trick all these years? Improving accuracy and time-saving in one step. Why didn't you, dear friend, tell me about this? Can it be, I have discovered a new quilting technique? If I am not an inventor, and everyone already knows this super simple system, then why did the pattern instructions tell me to cut all those little logs? Please comment and share what workshop or magazine you first learned this secret in.
Anyway, whether you are amazed right now or LOLing, thanks for sharing our thrill of discovery.

1 comment:

  1. Since you'd never seen it before, you did indeed invent it for yourself. However, Eleanor Burns shows this method in her Quilt-in-a-Day Log Cabin book, which was published in the mid-'80's. If you use this method, be sure to square up each block to the proper size with the addition of each log. I prefer to cut the logs ahead. I feel I am more accurate that way. But, to each her own!

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