by Kathleen Khosravi of Olive Leaf Quilts
Have you ever looked at a quilt with thousands of little pieces and wondered how someone found the time and fortitude to make such a thing. Well, sometimes there are easier ways.
My latest pattern called, “Little Gems” uses a technique commonly known as the “stitch and flip” method. I love this method because it is accurate and simple. First one draws a diagonal line across the wrong side of a square. It is placed in the corner of a second square with right sides together. After sewing directly on the diagonal line it is trimmed ¼ inch from the sewing line. Finally what is left is flipped open and pressed. Two triangles are trimmed off and discarded, and discard them I did until several things became glaringly obvious to me.
1. Most of the time I was using 2½ inch squares so I had consistently sized triangles left over.
2. Sewing these triangles together as I trimmed made storing and saving them easy to manage.
All those perfect little triangles ceased to be trash but instead became a resource. Now I save every one of them and when I have enough I will turn them into a quilt with thousands of little pieces. Then I will be the person of whom people think, “She has too much time on her hands.” What can I say? A woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do.