Wow – can you believe we are already in Week #4 of our Colourwerx PaintBox 
QuiltAlong! If you’re just joining us, you can catch up on Week #1-3’s blog posts right here:
Week 1 – Gather the Pattern and Materials
Week 2 – Sorting Your Strips Into Groups & Cutting
Week 3 – Stitching the Strips
This week is where all the magic happens and you begin to actually see your quilt top take shape! First things first. By now you should have stitched your strip sets together in groups as explained in detail in last week’s post – Week 3 – Stitching the Strips!
Now the fun begins where we cut the strips into the triangle shapes, and begin to play with our layout options.
Cutting the Triangles —
Gather together the coloured strips sets and the Creative Grids Quarter Square Triangle Ruler CGRT90 .
First a word about why I love, love the Creative Grids Brand of rulers and no – they are not paying me to say this – I just happen to really like the brand. 🙂
1. Each ruler has a firm non-slip surface so the ruler pretty much stays put on your fabric;
2. The markings on the ruler are clear and easy to read;
3. My favorite part: each ruler has a QR code stamped on the ruler.
Yup, that little funny looking square is actually an informational code that when scanned with the QR Reader App (available for all smart devices through the App Store) will then automatically take you to a video of how to use the ruler, special tips and tricks and perhaps a free pattern or two to use with your new ruler. This little QR code is on each and every Creative Grids ruler even the most basic straight rulers. Just download the QR Reader app from onto your device…then open the application and your camera will appear on the screen – hover the screen of the camera over the QR code on the ruler and loike magic, you will be taken to the corresponding QR video!
Here’s a link to the tutorial from Creative Grids for the triangle ruler:
Now onto cutting your triangles! Lay your first strip set across your cutting board and place the triangle ruler on top. Place the top tip of the ruler aligned with the top edge of your strips – the bottom strip edge should align straight across the appropriate measurement of your ruler as diagrammed in the pattern on page 2.
Hold on though! – We can’t all be perfect piecers all the time so it’s ok if your strip set width is not measuring exactly to the desired size as specified in the pattern….a hair off here and there or a wobble in piecing between strips is perfectly ok. You will need to cut (4) triangles from each strip set and you will find that you will have more than enough fabric to cut around your tiny imperfections in strip piecing.
TAKE NOTE THOUGH!! Next and probably the most important thing to remember about cutting the triangles is to keep the horizontal sewn seams from strip 1 to strip 2 to strip 3 to strip 4 running horizontally straight and true under the horizontal ruler lines – see page 2 Step 3 for detailed information on this step but the picture below also gives you a good idea of what to look for before making your first cut. Cut your first triangle.
Rotate the ruler upside down and align the left diagonal edge of the ruler to the left diagonal cut edge of the strip set. (Of course these instructions are for right handers – if you are left handed, you may be aligning on the right hand side of the strip set and then cutting from right to left). Again before cutting make sure the horizontal seams of your strip set are running horizontally straight and true under the ruler measurement lines.
Many times you will find that after you line up the horizontal seams of the strip set under the ruler, that the cut diagonal left edge of the strip set will not line up perfectly with the left diagonal edge of the ruler – that’s ok. See the photo below for an exaggerated example…..
That’s ok – again, you have plenty of fabric to cut yourself a new diagonal edge. Continue cutting the remaining (9) coloured strips sets into triangles.
Cutting the Sashing Triangles –
Gather the sashing strip sets and your triangle ruler. Keeping the above notes in mind, follow along on page 3-4 and cut triangles from each of these strip sets.
Piece the Sashing Triangles –
Gather the sashing triangles and following along in the pattern on page 4-Step 1-2, stitch (2) triangles together to form a larger triangle. If you pressed each seam set in the same direction from seam to seam, you will find that when matching 2 triangles together that the seams will already go in opposite directions.
Sometimes you might have to toss a triangle in the pile to the side until a partner (with seams pressed in the opposite direction) appears in the pile. Regardless, stitch the triangles together and press the seams in one direction.
Layout!
Now the fun begins! It’s time to lay out all of the sashing triangles and coloured triangles in formation on your floor or design board – follow the Quilt Top Diagram on page 6.
If you colored in the B&W line art quilt top diagram from Week 1 , then this next step is easy. If not, there’s still time and you may want to download the line art below and have a little colouring session before proceeding. Believe me it makes a world of difference and at the very least give you a starting point when laying out your units.
DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THE PAINT BOX LINE ART HERE
Here’s my original drawing and my first layout….
I think I might leave this up on my design wall for a few days and ponder the layout. Things look different after you let them ferment for awhile if you know what I mean. And I may want to play around with the subtle color changes from strip set to strip set to see if something different happens. You can also take a photo and look at your layout from there. It’s amazing how the photo gives you a slightly different perspective than being up close and in person.
As a sidenote, you may be wondering what my design wall in the above photo is made of and what it is attached to. It is actually (2) 4′ x 8′ pieces of lightweight foam insulation board (available from Lowes or Home Depot) and then covered in batting. They are then attached with 3M sticky tabs to the sliding glass closet doors in my sewing studio. Viola! Instant design wall and storage space in the closet!
That’s it for this week! Join us next week for Week #5 – Quilt Top Assembly. I’ll report back if I changed anything in my Layout above and then how to stitch the rows together to finally assemble your quilt top.
Until then, please be sure to email us at colourwerx@yahoo.com if you have any questions. Or feel free to post progress pictures on our Colourwerx QAL Facebook Group.
Until your next colour fix and next week’s QAL post ~ happy and bright quilting always! L&C xxoo
UPDATE!! AnneD from @batiksbythebay – you are the randomly selected winner for our Blue Moon Batik Blog Hop – please email or dm me at colourwerx@embarqmail.com with your mailing address to receive your prize!! Thank you to everyone for playing along!! 
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