Secret Sewing and a Piecing Tip

For the last two months I have been doing lots of Secret Sewing in between several teaching trips. I still can't tell you about it yet but here's a teaser:

If you like quilts with lots of piecing and lots of fabrics, this is for you.

Now on to the Sizzle borders--lots of applique' in my future:

VERY IMPORTANT TIP FOR BLOCK CORNER SEAMS:

In piecing these 20" blocks together, I found my block corner seams, which are pressed open, were coming apart. I had to sew them back again and that took time and wasn't all that easy--the seams joining the circles to the Block Corners  are pretty short.

What I wish I had done:

1. Check each seam on each block after trimming it to 20.5". I had oversized my block corners so when trimming I was cutting away any backstitching I might have made on the block corner seams. Re-sew any seams that were coming open.

2. Stay-stitch the open seams as soon as the block was done--this stitching is done within the 1/4" seam allowance:

 I dragged these blocks to two classes a month, for six months, where they were often passed around so they were handled more than I would usually have blocks handled. With the seams stay-stitched they would have held up to that better.

Now to get my Warm Sizzle blocks assembled. Then I will prepare and start the machine applique' of the borders.

Let's quilt.

Barbara