Spinners Again

I debated with myself on how to put this one together. Normally I am not a fan of rows, I prefer the twosie-foursie method. Several years ago while at the Houston market I was talking with Kay England (I believe) and she was telling me about how she assembled quilt tops using the twosie-foursie method. She would put the first two blocks in a row together and then the first two of the second row and then she would put those together like a four patch. She would then move over and do the same for the next two blocks on the first and second rows. She would then connect this four patch to the first one. Continue across and down the quilt like this. It will keep the top more square. Sometimes straight row after row will tend to bow. The first time I tried this method was on a pink and brown HST quilt. When we loaded the top on the quilting machine all those 3 inch HST's ran straight across the front bar. Barbara and Ada were helping me quilt this one and we were all amazed at how straight it was, so needless to say that is the way I usually assemble my quilt tops.

However with this one I decided I would have to put it together in rows. Since I have to work from the design wall one this one to keep everything straight, and I don't have enough room to lay out the whole top, I will have to work on a few rows at a time.

I have decided on 7 rows of 6 blocks each. This will use 42 sets of 4 matching units, however the block is made up of parts of those 30 connecting units. So I pieced the blocks for the first two rows , using 17 sets of matching units. I only have room on the design wall for about 3 and a half rows, so I wanted the second row pieced before I took the first row down to assemble. This made moving the second row up a lot easier. I then only had a few of the connecting pieces to move up to have room then to lay out all of row 3 which will include parts of the next connecting blocks. On the bottom right corner you can see where I have some of my units made ready to be added to the wall. You have to balance your colors as you go since you can't move blocks around, so seeing these extra units like this and also on the sewing table will show me if I have too much of one color or not enough of another. Yes this one is a little bit of a challenge but I am enjoying working on it.








Happy Stitching,



Teresa