- Place a strip of background fabric right side up on a flat surface. Place the scrap
squares or triangles side-by-side on the strip, right sides down. Pin the pieces to the
strip, placing pins diagonally toward the corners, beyond the sewing line. NOTE: You
will be sewing along an imaginary line if you are using squares. If you prefer, draw a
line from corner to corner on the wrong side of each scrap square. This will be your
guideline and you'll stitch 1/4" away from it on both sides.
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- With a rotary cutter or scissors, cut the background strip, using the pinned on pieces
as a cutting guide. If you are using triangles, there will be two pieces pinned to each
background unit you cut.
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- At the sewing machine, place a background unit on point under the presser foot, with the
inside edge of the foot on the point. Stitch the unit, as shown. Your stitching line will
be 1/4" to the left of the diagonal line drawn on the square. If you are sewing
triangles, the stitching will be 1/4" to the left of the diagonal line drawn on the
square. If you are sewing triangles, the stitching will be 1/4" from the raw edge.
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- Chain stitch all of the pieces in this manner, forming what looks like a long kite tail.
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- Grasping the last unit of this kite tail, turn the whole set around. Then sew down
the opposite side of the center line on each square. For triangles, sew 1/4" from the
raw edge.
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- Snip the threads to separate each unit. Cut along the center line of each unit,
separating them into triangle sets.
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- Using a 90° triangle ruler with measurements parallel to the base, match the sewing
line of each triangle set to the correct line on the ruler and trim it to size. At this
point you are working with triangles that are sewn together but not pressed open. This
allows you to trim the pieced square by using two cuts, instead of four. NOTE: I
remove the pins as I trim, sticking them into the ironing board or pincushion in groups of
10. This lets you know at a glance how many pieces have been cut.
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- As you trim, place the triangle sets on the ironing board with the light side down.
Ironing is a breeze when you simply lift the darker fabric to press open the square. This
automatically puts the seam allowance toward the darker fabric.
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