Two More Tops

       Two more tops done. I may have started this one over 10 years ago. I used it to demonstrate the Thirtysomething technique when I was teaching. I would have made it bigger but I don't have any more red fabric left except for Civil War prints. It's called Family Tree. The pattern is in The Thirtysomething Block Book. It will remain a UFO for now.

Since Covid-19 struck, I've been in a quilt shop maybe 4 times. In and out quickly. I'm planning to go soon. It should be fun. I want to plan carefully because I don't need to add to my stash for the fun of it. Well, maybe a little. But maybe not red. Mark always told me to have fun when I went off to a quilt shop and that does mean to shop, right?  

This Triple four-patch was started earlier this year when Stashbusters started a  Trail Mix SewAlong. I just loved the block. The quilt has 5 different blocks in it, but since I made small wheel chair quilts with my blocks, I only used 2 or 3 different blocks per quilt. There are several ways to color the blocks and piece them too. This is what I ended up with. I won't be including a border on this one. And some day I may just add more blocks, provided the colors don't look out of place.

I took this picture of the bald eagles this morning out my sewing room window. They are sitting on the edge of the street enjoying their breakfast of a possum road kill, 3 days old.  Uck. They have been around all week. Why didn't they eat it earlier?  The birds were by the creek last spring for a few weeks, too. I wish I was quicker with the camera, I would have loved a picture of them in flight. 

 The "Creek" is Sugar Creek also out in front of the house a few hundred feet. Crazy full of wildlife. I've seen otter swimming in it. Again there is a new beaver dam this winter. This one is fairly close to the house. When we found it, we came upon a  deer skeleton  within a few feet of it. I haven't seen the beaver in years, just the stumps of the trees and bushes they cut down. I've heard them slap their tails on the water a few times. That's pretty cool. 

I'm not sure how I will finish the year with my quilting. I could cut or piece or bind or quilt or, or, or. Tired tonight. We burned 2 brush piles in the woods today. Perfect day for it. We made 14 piles this year and what if we don't get the snow we need to burn them????

Sew Many Piles

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, or fall into a black hole. I've been deep in the woods. It's just been so awesome since we cleaned out the prickly ash and buckthorn. And the deer did not eat the flowers this year! I just love being out there and sometimes think of taking some sewing with me. Handwork, of course. Pack a lunch and enjoy. We don't have any benches or chairs out there, but a big old oak laid down right along side the path at the very top of the hill. We always take a break from our hike or work there, but not for long. A cushion is in order if I intend to stay and sew. This time of year we are pulling garlic mustard. Most areas are looking pretty good. We just might get it under control yet.

The work is piling up at home. No reason to count. It might motivate or inspire you, but not me. I don't want to know the number. A list would be more useful to me, but I'm not even doing that these days.  High on the to do list is quilting the next church raffle quilt and samples for class at Studio 3.  Attendance has been a little spotty, by myself as well, as many of us are always on the go.

I have one trip out of the way and that was to Quilt Market in Minneapolis. If you saw my facebook post, you saw that on the way home we stopped at the guys hunting property midway between here and Mpls and went for a 1 1/2 hours walk in the woods picking up nearly 50 mostly wood ticks on the way! Anybody want to buy some hunting land in the middle of Wisconsin???

Quilt Market was great. I didn't think I would like being in the first of 24 aisles, but it didn't seem to matter. Lots of interest in my Thirtysomething technique and new Block Book. I sold out of my stock of Square Up tools and have more on order. Lots of the shops were interested in taking it for demos at their shop hops this summer. There has been lots of orders too on my website since I added  Paypal Buy It Now buttons. Who has time to quilt? And did I mention that I have a special going on now when you buy both the Block Book and Square Up you save $4.

Always an Option

I always offer options for my class projects. In Kentucky next week I have 3 half-day classes scheduled. These two samples are for the Thitysomething Stars class on Saturday. I prefer the gold, red and brown sample with leaves in the prints. I tend to like dark colors. I've been told its cause I am from the midwest. Who knows?  I do like the brighter sample too, kinda.

3 hours should be just enough time to get the hang of making basic Thirtysomething units. The rest they have done before.  Wow, just 3 hours. That makes me wanna take a class myself.

Still love to quilt

Wouldn't it be grand if we had all the time we WANTED. Maybe pop a little pill to add a few hours to the days we wanted. Weekends maybe. Or if you like your job and after job life then simply extend the days to do all in life you love. We've been enjoying a beautiful summer here in SE Wisconsin and I have spent many hours outdoors. No surprise to you if you have been following me for  a while. We've eliminated most of the Prickly Ash on the agenda for the year and we have moved on to the Buckthorn. And I thought I would be quilting. Mark got to see a tree-eater in action and has decided to hire someone to come out and mow down the worst of the Buckthorn. That is great news. I love our little woods but this particular 2 acre corner is pretty much impassible and it will only get worse if we don't attempt to get it under control during our lifetime. We trekked through the marsh yesterday too. The guys decided that we ought have the same tree-eating machine cut a path through the marsh, too. Cool.

I have decided to set my Shoo-fly blocks on point so I needed to make 8 more with dark backgrounds. Good thing I had plenty of purple batiks in my stash to blend in with those in the layer cake. Those are done and  I am ready to assemble the top. You will see it here first.

I did a you-tube video on my Thirtysomething technique. I'd like to tweak it but the gal helping doesn't have too much time for that right now.

Better than nothing

I knew I would have little time to sew these days. Since I couldn't get a booth at Quilt Market to sell "The Thirtysomething Block Book"  I am going to have to move on to Plan B. That will require more work on my part to promote it to the shops. It might be easier in the end because my work won't be so concentrated in preparing for Market. See the post previous to this one about the book. I am still updating my website with it.

This is the only sewing I have to share this week. In fact I didn't even do this recently. I found these in my cabinet with class samples. I sewed these pieces in the course of demonstrating several techniques for classes. I pulled them out again to demo to my beginning  sampler class. It's pretty much cut and ready to sew thanks to my organized scraps.

I am not sure of what my plan was with this. The original quilt, Full House, was featured in my book "Save the Scraps". But then I bordered a single block. And again I didn't draw up a finished plan for the pieces. I know I planned to make 4 of the bigger framed blocks and join them somehow and border them somehow, but I don't remember. So I think I will just finish it like the original. Lots of times when I have the same class scheduled I have one work in progress that I can demonstrate with to all the classes. That was the case here, but I don't know what the plan was. I guess I will have to start making better notes. BTW, Save the Scraps is nearly out of print unless you don't mind an e-book.

I've been wanting to work outside but we have had a cold wet spring so far. The rest of the week promises to be nice so I guess it will be no sewing again.

I'm linking to Judy's and will plan to check out all the links tonight when I crash.

Sew long...

The Great Do-over

If you have been following my blog for a while, you may recall that last March Sue and I bid and won an antique quilt top from on ebay. I say "we" cause Sue isn't connected. The top was for her. She's crazy about them old 30's and 40's prints. And probably really 50's prints. Her plan was to take it apart and remake it.
Here's the before and after pictures.

Generally I don't blog about other people's quilting but this time I had  to share cause she was so sweet and gifted it to me. WOW. Why would she do that?  Well, she knew I loved this particular pattern and lots of those prints. After all I kept her informed of all the goodies I found on ebay and shared with her the treasures left at church. But apparently this is her favorite pattern to piece - having done 3 now. Giving it way gives her a reason to make another top.  Apparently she has a problem with them piling up at home and she is happy to give it to someone that she knows likes it.

It doesn't take much to see what changes she made to it. Besides changing the many colored melon patches to one color, she swapped out some of the fabrics that were very thin. She is fond of the stripes so added those and introduced a bunch of the bright yellow. One of the biggest improvements to this piece is the workmanship.  The quilter that had attempted to put this thing together had no concept of a consistent width seam allowance and didn't have a clue how to get those corners to meet and lie flat. Sue ripped out all the hand stitching that had a backstitch every 3 stitches and then recut the pieces for the 9-patch.  Sue was a a little disappointed in how flat and smooth her pieces fit together, but I assured her that it will "quilt out". Let's hope so.  I bet she is going to expect me to hand quilt this thing.  That's her favorite thing to do with a quilt top and on a gem like this, I guess I ought to to honor Sue. She has been my sister-in-law and friend for 40 years and I am really glad to have this piece from her.

Book 9 I am calling the Thirtysomething Block Book and is in the hands of the graphic artist, so now my attention turns to marketing it. Thinking of a blog hop/book tour. What do ya think. There would be give-aways involved. 

Improved Square Up

I just remembered that a year ago when I added two little lines to my Thirtysomething Square Up tool, that I never posted about it. So hear goes. The two new lines were added so the tool could double as a trimming template for the companion pieces to the Thirtysomething units  that I call "Onlies" I called them that cause they have only one little triangle in the unit as opposed to the two little triangles that the Thirtysomething unit has. This first photo shows the tool in position after trimming a square. In my case, the piece under the ruler is discarded. You might opt to use it in a miniature. The other line is 1" below the line I've used to trim squares for 4" finished units.

I had some scraps on my cutting table and thought these little blocks would be cute in this design. I don't have many more scraps that would work with these, so before I dig into the stash to really make something with them, I thought I oughta just use up those scraps first.

  I was inspired by this quilt by Kelly Kroon that I put in my first Thirtysomething book. I think it's wonderful, but apparently you have to get the contrast just right.   

I was pretty excited about these two little lines. I've been using the improved tool in my classes all year and the quilters love it. And they don't even know it saves them from having to buy yet another tool to do what the new lines do. If you are interested you can go to my website to order one. And you still have time to make  a quilt for the QOV/Quilter's Rule tool challenge. Check out these links.

I'm off to Judy's to check out the blogs linked up for Design Wall Monday.

New Challenge Announced

Quilter's Rule needs this quilt before their office closes today. Good thing I finished it yesterday. They will be displaying it in their booth at several shows out west. I hope people find it inspiring and participate in the QOV tool challenge. Thousands of people already have the tool, so maybe they will dig it out and join the fun. If you don't have the tool yet and enjoy making quilts for QOV then please, order a Thirtysomething Square Up. You don't have to make a quilt with these blocks. Any design will do, so long as you use the tool. For more ideas, check out past posts about Thirtysomething in the sidebar to the right. If you have my book, S is for Scraps, two designs use the tool. For challenge details, check out this link.

And if that isn't enough links, I'm also linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times for her Design Wall Mondays.

A tool challenge for QOV

I just have a few minutes between shows and found a picture for you. I probably showed it earlier, but read on.
I just got back from teaching at Nebraska State quilt conference. What a bunch of great friendly quilters. I enjoyed the other teachers too. Again I taught my Thirtysomething and Infinite Stars workshops.  They are probably my two most requested classes and I enjoy them immensely. I rarely teach a class where everyone is making the same project and the girls are always "wowed" by all the options and how easy they are to make. If your guild is looking for a program and or workshop that teaches technique not just a project, then give me a call. I'd love to visit with you.
Next I am on my way to the Machine Quilting  show in Oconomowoc WI www.MToday.com.  Quilter's Rule asked to use my tool for next year's Quilts of Valor challenge. That means I had to come up with a quilt pattern to sell that uses the tool. See the details  http://www.mqtoday.com/competitions/qriTool/2013-Rules%20&%20Form%20Complete.pdf   Keep in mind these are this year's rules, but next years will likely be the same with the exception of using my tool.

 This is the quilt I chose, but I had to add a row to bring it up to the required size for QOV.  And though this quilt is not Red, White and Blue, they can still use it. What colores will yours be?  You need not use the pattern for your challenge quilt, - just the tool. Be creative. The gals in my class in Nebraska could show you how. I could too for that matter.

The Best Ever

What can I say? Spring finally arrived here in Skunk's Misery. I am outside as much as possible. There are lots of weed seedlings demanding my attention. When I am in the house I'm either too tired to quilt or I'm filling orders for my Thirtysomething Square Up tool. Stephanie Prescott of A Quilter's Dream designed a Block of the Month quilt using my Square Up tool. Perhaps you are participating or have seen it at your LQS. Her pattern is called Sample This!

Last night I joined Joy and Patty to do a little sewing. "Little" is an accurate description of what we did. More talking than usual. Must see them more often so that won't happen. It was difficult to focus on cutting and figuring out someone's pattern.

My trip to Santa Rosa was the best ever. Everything about it was Perfect. I'm still talking about it. All flights were on time. The weather was gorgeous. The meeting was well attended, everyone was friendly, sales were good, nice compliments, a fun, full workshop, and good food. To top it off, my hostess took me on a hike in the Foothills park near her home. I couldn't have asked for a better time. I noticed how much cleaner the area is than my area which is always a mess coming out of winter. Lots blooming, and the only bugs I saw were bees on the beautiful, blooming wisteria vines. I saw few birds maybe cause there weren't any bugs for them.

It's in the 80's today. Too hot for me to work outside so I am catching up on paperwork... Cooling off to normal for the rest of the week. So I will be back in the garden again. Wish me luck eliminating the weeds so I have more time to quilt. I sure hope you don't have the same problem.

Seeing Star Points Again

I'm back from a great trip to Indianapolis. I drove it -  SW to Beloit first, then east past Bloomington, IL. The route had very little traffic, especially compared to around Chicago (the alternate route). The guild meets at a beautiful old church on the North side of the city. Shoulda taken a picture. As it was I had only my cell phone to take pictures with and they weren't very good. See?
 

These are the only photos from the Thirtysomething workshop that were worth showing. The gals in class were lots of fun and I was so glad that they were all willing to play with their Thirtysomething pieces to see what designs they could come up with. It will be interesting if they finish their assignments and send me a picture someday of their finished top. Some say the class should be advertised as a mystery class cause they don't even know what they will end up making. However, I do give them one detailed pattern they could follow. I am sure some have a hard time deciding in the end. I did need to remind them they could always make another one.

 
 This trip was a bit unusual because not only was I there for a guild lecture and workshop, but also a visit with my sister. She joined me from Pennsylvania. She attended the guild program Thursday and the next day while I was in class she went to the Indy Speedway track and museum. Sat. morning we went to the Garfield park conservatory. Now I know what kind of vegetation Lucrecia gets to enjoy in Panama. Very unusual flowers.
I also brought her a few of mom's things and she brought me a few things, too. You'll see.

Tomorrow is church quilting. We are planning to work till the next raffle quilt top is done. HA. If I quilt at all this week, I will be surprised. Lots of catching up to do.

Smoky Mountain Getaway

My trip to the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina for the Quilt Symposium was uneventful. Thank goodness the grief began on the way home with a storm in Atlanta that delayed my trip 6 hours. Good thing I really like Airports. I think I get it from having grown up near one. We would often walk up to the park to watch the planes land.

  The symposium itself was wonderful. Over 300 beautiful quilts, 20 vendors and a few hundred quilters.  I was lucky to get these three pictures from my Thirtysomething class.  My camera has been acting up for a few weeks, so I will be getting a new camera in the near future.  I hope I have these projects identified correctly. The one above was by Kathi Culler.

The next one is by Judy  Slater. And the bottom one by Diane Berdis. I really liked that the gals chose some of the options I presented. I like to think of my designs as suggestions. There was alot of talk in both classes about "the next one I make like this" So with any luck they'll send me jpegs.
Students promised to send me pictures from the Infinite Stars workshop, too. Some of the gals stayed up till midnight finishing their stars.
After 5 days, it was good to get home. I have been watering the gardens all day today, it's been so dry. Otherwise things are the same as always. Love it.
 

Dress Rehearsal

I finished my Thirtysomething Stars quilt; unless I decide to border it. It is an enlarged version of my quilt, Dress Rehearsal from my book, Thirtysomething. I thought it would be a good idea to make a few Thirtysomething quilts with some fresh new fabrics. Some of the first quilts I made almost 20 years ago and it shows.

I've made several of this quilt, always changing values of the sashing, background, border and setting triangle fabrics.  It's a popular one in classes and I have seen it in every style of fabric made. That is always fun.

I wasn't able to make it to quilting at church this week because I was on my way  back from Michigan. I hope they made progress on the raffle quilt. The girls moved quilting from last night to tonight. I'm going to go look for something to work on.  Sew long.

Quick trip to Michigan

I'm back from my trip to Michigan. Darn, I would have liked to stay longer and have more fun with the ladies.  I had great driving weather and little traffic for the drive over. I stayed at a lovely Bed & Breakfast in Grand Haven. I wouldn't mind staying there again. The 24 ladies in class were a fun bunch. I was pleased with all they got done, even though only one actual  block was completed by most of them. They had much of the other work done, just not together. This was my "Savor the Scraps" class where they learn the basic Thirtysomething unit and 3 different borders.  I didn't have the camera ready in time for show and tell at the meeting in the evening when they all showed them, but here are a few. And there was a great crowd for the evening program. What's not to like about my job? Thank you Lighthouse Quilter's of Grand Haven, MI.

Paperwork piled up in the few days I was gone. So I hope to take care of that tonight so I can get back to some quilting. I want to finish the Dress Rehearsal/Thirthysomething Stars quilt first.  I had it along when I went quilting last Friday. It has sashing and it's diagonally set, so it was difficult to work on with all the distraction and without spreading it out on a bed, flannel wall or at least a clean floor. So I put it away and worked on a handful of bowtie blocks using the extra squares Sue cut last month. For all the kits I have together, few are cut out so I am going to have to get in the mood to do some cutting soon so I will have a greater variety to choose from when the mood strikes to do some piecing.

Thursday's meeting at Benny's was well attended but the shop will now be called Quilt's 'n Such. I was a little distracted that day because my daughter was having surgery. She is home now and doing fine.

 This is Sue's quilt in progress. She was required to bring it for show and tell the other night when she called at 9 pm looking for more fabric. Since she knows I am up till midnight she didn't hesitate to call. I was surprised because she is one of those early to bed early to rise kinda girls. My fabric is looking pretty good there, I'd say.  I guess I arranged the blocks wrong, but she liked it and might not set it barn raising style after all.

It was sure nice to attend a quilt show in winter. The Winter Quilt Show was a little small as show's go, but otherwise had everything you could want in a show - a bunch of free lectures and lots of vendors. My Sweet Pepper class Friday was not well attended. This was the 3rd year of the show and the first time classes were offered on Friday. The gals in class did an excellent job however not all wanted to share photos. This work is by Melissa followed by blocks from her friend Sue and another Gail.

 

I didn't get any sewing done this weekend with Mark home. But it was still nice out and we went for several walks and discovered a huge patch of Bittersweet vines growing along a path I've hiked often in the past. Sue was over today for even more fabric (She always makes big quilts.) and a walk to see the Bittersweet.  While she was here I cut and organized my 1800's scraps for a couple more kits. Now I don't know what to work on next because I have so many ideas started. Maybe it is time to make another list, that always helps me to prioritize. Quilting at church tomorrow and Joy is bringing a quilt for the long arm on Wed.  Busy, busy, ain't that grand?

Virtual Quilts

I can spend lots of time making virtual quilts. Electric Quilt software is a fun tool for narrowing down my decisions. Here are just 3 of many quilt plans I came up with recently.

 

 

 
 I am trying to come up with a plan to use a few of my orange fabrics. I have a few in batik besides these.

 And I wouldn't necessarily use blue with the orange. It just offers good contrast on my computer screen. The plans above aren't final either. The ultimate size would be based on how much I like how it is going. Unless I decide to keep it small for a sample for my lectures. These are all Thirtysomething designs, so that's probably a better plan.
 I have been doing some real quilting too. Both in the studio on an old top and the sewing room. I have a few more Flying Geese units left to make for the Birds-in-the-Air ARE Flying Geese quilt.

Then in September

As usual there were lectures and workshops on my agenda this fall. I spent one day with members of the Oshkosh guild. I arrived the evening before and then met my hostess for breakfast. There were over 20 ladies in class and they were really spread out.  I was relieved when they found a microphone for my use during the workshop because I was developing a good case of laryngitis.

 One of the members brought this quilt of my design to the meeting. I love it when they do that. Actually another gal also brought a quilt from the same pattern. Somehow I forgot to get a picture and I was even holding the camera!

Also as usual, I was teaching a Thirtysomething workshop. And I believe it was the same gal mentioned above that found this free pattern with the Thirtysomething technique on my website. What a surprise when instead of making the blocks as suggested, she produced these 9 different blocks from the same elements. I love it when that happens! Do you ever play with the pieces for a block to see what other designs you can come up with?

Mystery solved

It's time for the big reveal. So here is how all the pieces go together, Well, my pieces.

I do recall that I had you cut some extra half square triangles of the light background fabric.  No you don't need to correct me.  I recall that I had you cut too many.  Again sorry about that.  BUT if you would like, and  if you happen to have more coordinating scraps, (and who doesn't?) you could use them for an additional piece border like I did here.   If you would like to add the extra pieced border, you will need a total of 56 half-square triangle units from 3 7/8 inch triangles, and 4 dark squares 3 1/2" for the corners.
 
My original plans were to simply add another plain border and be done with it like I've shown here.

 Of course the center of your stars may be different and you may alternate centers if you've done both options. And because I am all about options, instead of Thirtysomething units in the corners you could just use 4 light background squares like I've shown here.

Now I just need to decide if I like it best with another plain border or not. And do I have the courage to use some jazzy thread on that white background?

Well, I had fun, I hope you did, too.

A clue with an option

Do you ever feel like you are being bombarded with ideas for quilts? It happens to me all the time and I just have to share. That's what I do.  I call this quilt “It’s Getting Late”.  It’s from my book Thirtysomething, too!  I really like these stars and always thought that I would make another quilt with these stars, but rather than arranging the stars the way I did, I thought I would alternate light stars and dark stars and use a completely different style of fabric.  That quilt has been on my to do list for probably 10 years now.

The stars in this quilt were made using some of the same units that we’ve made for the mystery quilt.  I was reminded of this quilt when I played a little with my pieces for the mystery quilt.  I have to admit I never thought to color the stars scrappy like this.

Have you tried different arrangement of the pieces to see what designs you might come up with? I’ll give you a clue.  I thought that I could follow the directions for the quilt I planned without presenting any options.  I find that very difficult to do, so here are your options. You need to join 4 Thirtysomething units to make the centers for 9 stars. 




Option 1 is the easiest and that is to make four-pointed stars.
Option 2 is to sew the units together with the points in the center. 
Option 3 is to make 4 of Option 1 and 5 of Option 2.

I have no preference when it comes to pressing the seam allowances.  My general rule is to press in the direction of least resistance, and sometimes I press the seams open.  That’s what I’ve done here.

Here’s one more quick step.  Sew together pairs of a half square triangles units to make flying geese units with the light background as the geese.
That's it for now. Boy, keeping you in suspense like this has been fun. Next week will be the big reveal with one more option!

New to you?

Is the Thirtysomething unit new to you? It may look like a common patchwork unit based on a four-patch, but it uses 30 degree angles instead. If you are working on the mystery, you have already cut the pieces.   The three pieces in a Thirtysomething unit I have labeled A, B, and C.  The kite-shaped piece in the center (patch C) is trimmed square after it is sewn. I hope after you cut the A and B triangles you took the time to stack the A triangles and B triangles in separate piles. Trust me, it can be confusing if you don’t.
       
Before sewing the Thirtysomething units, check that you are stitching a scant 1/4" seam allowance. Test it by stitching three 1 ½" x 5" scraps together on the long edges. The middle piece should then measure 1" exactly. Adjust your seam allowance till it is!


Place an A triangle and C triangle right sides together,  matching tips precisely. Start stitching at the broad end of the C triangle rather than at the point.  This will place the smaller A triangle underneath. Don't be concerned that you will be sewing through a single layer of fabric (patch C) for an inch or so. You will notice that the C triangle points in both directions. That means sometimes you will start stitching the patch at a 90degree corner and sometimes that corner is a 60 degree angle. Remember, this is the corner that will be trimmed square after sewing the three triangles together.


  The seam allowance must be pressed toward the A triangle for proper alignment of the B triangle.  Hold the point straight while pressing to avoid curving the seams.  Press carefully to avoid tucks, particularly at the point.  Remember, do not trim the point until after the B triangle is sewn on. The point is needed to align the B triangle.



  
 Add a B triangle, carefully matching the raw edges of all three layers at the narrow points. Start stitching at the broad end of the C triangle. The small B triangle will now be on top. Press the seam towards the B triangle. Hold the point straight while pressing.

Most likely you will want to try a few before you set up any chain piecing. After you get the idea, you will end up making 40 Thirtysomething units and get pretty good at it.

A few suggestions:
Pair all the A and C triangles right sides together, offsetting them ½". This will allow you to check that pieces are indeed  RST and that you are using the correct piece. If you are not you will see the square corner of the small triangle instead of the  60degree corner.

Flip and stitch broad end in first. A lot of times in classes the gals will somehow spin the pieces so the broad end is in first with the small triangle on top and then by mistake they sew on the wrong edge of the small triangle.  So, as you pick up each pair and flip them to sew with the small triangle on the bottom, check that you always stitch the long bias edge of the small triangle to the C triangle.

 

Squaring Up
    Use an ordinary square quilter's ruler and position it on the unit so the edges of the A and B triangles are aligned with the 3 ½ " lines of the ruler. The inner point of the C triangle should be at 3 1/4".  Center the broad end of the C triangle in the opposite corner of the square. (The 1 3/8" mark on the ruler should meet the seams at the edges of the 3" unit.)  Trim the C triangle and any excess fabric adjacent to it. Finally trim the points.

The Thirtysomething Square Up tool was designed to trim Thirtysomething units that finish either 3" or 4" including seam allowances. IF you are using this nifty tool, simply align the angled lines marked 3" with the seam lines of the Thirtysomething unit and trim everything extending beyond the edges. Then, rotate the Thirtysomething unit and tool to square up the unit to 3 ½", trimming the points and any excess fabric.

I've only made about a million of these things, so I think I have ironed out all the kinks. Literally, I have made over 70 quilts with these units. I occasionally hear from teachers that want to make the pieces bigger somehow to allow for the gals with wider seam allowances.  They invariably change the angle and things don't line up as well then.  I think this is a great opportunity to learn the importance of a scant 1/4" seam allowance. I hope you agree. Happy quilting.