Monochromatic Sampler: Block Two Tutorial

Ideally it would have been great for this block to have been the size of an actual Chess Board, But that would have either made the patches too fiddly or the blocks too big.

Preparing the strips

Take two 2 1/2 inch strips of fabric, black and white, and then cut them down the middle to make two 1 1/4 inch strips. Alternatively you can of course use scraps to make this block from all your other blocks at the end of the quilt.

Press and splice

Sew the two strips together, press and then cut in half and then sew together again, until you have eight alternating fabric strips sewn together. Remember to press, measure and trim if needed inbetween sewing each time to make sure that you get the size of your strips accurate. Each strip should be 3/4 inch thickness. I ended up pressing the seams towards the black rather than flat. It gives the black patching a raised look.

Pin and sew

Once you have a strip of eight together, slice them so that you have rows of 1 1/4 inch strips. I tend to pin from the centre of the row outwards. If there is a lot of difference in the seams, then try another piece. I only had to unpick two of my rows to make them line up.

Once you have your chess board constructed, make sure that the last row is 1 inch thick all around with your ruler.

Sashing the block

Once finished, sash the block in one 2 1/2 inch strip. the block itself might be a little larger than your first one, but don't trim just yet. Wait until we have all our blocks done first before we trim down.

An alternative way of construction might be to use Oh Franssons! Quick-piece tiny squares method of using interfacing to construct the chess board.

Are you joining in? Get your Monochromatic Sampler icon here and join upto the Flickr group and post your blocks.

Now I am off to clean my iron!