Infrastructure Week 4: Pieced Strip Rows 3 and 5

How is your Infrastructure quilt coming along? To recap, so far we’ve finished sewing rows 1 and 2 which included a lot of cutting and piecing. Scroll to the end for links to the previous QAL posts.

If your pieced rows aren’t exactly the same length, don’t worry.
When we join all the rows together in week 10, I’ll discuss how to fix that, so stay tuned!

So this week will be a nice break. We will be sewing rows 3 and 5 which are basically just sewing together long strips of fabric. It’s super fast and easy!

Cutting the Rows

Instructions for cutting and sewing rows 3 and 5 can be found in the Infrastructure Quilt Pattern on pages 4-5, 9, and 11.

The most important thing to do when sewing together long strips of fabric is to measure what the cut size should be, and pining as you join the strips. If you don’t measure or pin, you have a good chance of creating “friendly” strip sets – in other words, long sewn segments that “wave” at you, LOL!! Friendly, wavy strips will make it hard for your quilt to lay flat, so let’s stick with being friendly to each other, not with our fabric, ok??

My strips are all cut from the Infrastructure Quilt Kit.

You can either cut these strips from a larger piece of fabric, parallel to the selvage; or enough width of fabric strips (usually 40″-42″) and piecing them together, then trim to size. When sewing 2 strips together to get a longer length, sew with a straight seam (not a mitered one) so that you’ll have enough length. Also, be sure to measure your other pieced rows and double check that you are cutting your long skinny strips the same unfinished size.

This is the Mosaic Dots print from Geo Pop – my fave!!!
Each circle is about 2″ in diameter.

You can choose to fussy cut the center of row 3 if you want, or let it be random. You can also choose to match up the pattern if you like. It’s not to hard too match the pattern – just pin and sew where the fabric repeats so the seam is less noticeable. Then trim off the extra fabric to 1/4″ seam allowance.

For my quilt, I fussy cut the center of row 3, but didn’t fussy cut any of the other strips since they were much skinnier. Refer to the QAL post from week 2 for tips on fussy cutting.

Sewing the Rows

To keep the long skinny strips for warping or stretching out of shape, sew the seams in opposite directions. An easy way to do this is to sew with the same fabric on top. So take a look at Row 3 below and notice the directions of the arrows:

Sewing directions of each seam to prevent warping or bowing

If you sew with the black strip on top when sewing both long skinny strips to the center, you will automatically switch sewing directions as indicated by the arrows. You can also achieve the same result if you keep the center strip on top instead, sewing sewing both long seams. The choice is up to you!

Use the same technique with Row 5 and sew either with (1) the white strip on top for both seams or (2) the blue strip on top for both seams (even if it’s a slightly different fabric).

Here’s a short, 1 minute video of me sewing the long skinny strips. I always start and end each sewing session with a scrap of fabric to catch stray threads. This prevents making a huge mess of thread on the back when you start sewing.

And there you have it – 2 more rows of our Infrastructure quilt!

GIVEAWAY & HEATHER’S VERSION

Pop over to Heather Black’s blog at Quiltachusetts to see her version of rows 3 and 5 made from Benartex Superior solids. While you are there, enter this week’s giveaway: an Accuquilt Go! Me Kit & Triangle Dies. You can also find out who won last week’s prize and remember, there’s a new fabulous prize each and every week from one of our sponsors!