Welcome back! We’re in the last week of our amazing ColourMaze QuiltAlong! This week is all about stitching the ColourMaze Blocks together to form vertical rows and then completing your quilt top by sewing those rows together! If you’re doing placemats or a table runner – just refer back to the pattern on pages 5 & 6 for sashing and border directions!
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Let’s get stitchin’!! Once your ColourMaze blocks are complete, you’ll then stitch the remaining 1″ strips to the top edge of each block. For tips and trick on sewing those thin little strips to your blocks, check out Week #3’s ColourMaze QAL here. If you’re making the Lap Quilt – you should have (3) 1″ strips left – set those aside.
While you’re at the machine – just go ahead and stitch the sashing and outer border strips together too. All of the directions are on pages 5 & 6 of the ColourMaze Pattern.
Next the fun begins – lay out on your design wall or floor the blocks in the order you prefer! Notice that I bolded the words “you prefer” – that’s because there is no right or wrong way to do this. I usually just choose a layout because I’m either pleased with how the order and colors flow from one block to another such as the Violet Craft Modern Classics sample below:
….Or I follow color wheel order like the Kaffe Fassett sample below….
Anything goes! Once you’ve decided your order, stitch those remaining (3) 1″ strips to the bottom edge of the the bottom block in each row. Now you’re ready to start stitching block to block to block to form vertical rows. On my Violet Craft Modern Classics sample, here’s Row #1….
And Row #2….
And Row #3….
Next, stitch the sashing strips on to one side of each vertical row! Now you”re ready to stitch the rows together to complete your quilt top.
Geo Pop on Black (purchase a kit from christaquilts.com)
But wait – I have a tip! Sometimes when stitching these long vertical rows together, the top row may creep ahead of the bottom row thus causing those strong horizontal lines (which were/are the 1″ strips in each block) to look off kilter. Part of the illusion of the ColourMaze design is that when all those little horizontal strips are lined up parallel across the vertical rows, it looks like a maze. So wouldn’t it be rather maddening after all your work to have them unparallel across the rows once the top is done? I think so!
So here’s what I do…. first, I place my two rows Right Sides Together. I then pin as usual but when I come to a place in the pinning where the thin strips need to stay aligned and parallel to each other from block to block – I “sneak, peek and pin” – 🙂 yes, a very technical term. But here it is a nutshell: I peel back the top row just enough so I can sneak a peek and realign the strips so that they are directly on top of each other. I then fold back the top layer to match to up the edges and pin in place. Works like a dream and almost always those thin little strips are aligned and parallel from each other from row to row!
Once you have the three rows stitched together – just finish off your ColourMaze quilt top by stitching the last outer border strip onto the remaining edge! And now you are complete and ready for the big reveal to family and friends! Great job! Go celebrate!
And what to do with all of the offcuts from the strips – how about make some scrappy binding! Here’s mine…I just sewed all the scrap strips together and made more than enough binding for my lap quilt!
This now concludes our ColourMaze QuiltAlong! Thank you so much for following along and for your continued support! Look for more Colourwerx QuiltAlongs on our Colourwerx Facebook page or on our website under QuiltAlongs!
Until your next colour fix – happy quilting! Linda & Carl xxoo
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