Dear Jane B6

Here is Dear Jane Block B6 or Wild Goose Chase. And first, let me assure you that no paper was harmed while making this block. And yes, those inset strips are quarter inch finished.

I began by making a three strip set with the .75 inch strip sewn in the center (finishing at a quarter inch). Next I cut out four squares on the diagonal. These are 1.25 inch squares.

I then sewed the four 1.25 inch squares together with .75 inch strips of sashing.

Then I surrounded the square with strips of the background fabric. Okay, I made the strips much larger than I needed too. But I wanted to show that for a lot of this one is not necessarily fiddling with small bits of fabric. Of course, if you go too large, more is cut away as waste.

Next I used a ruler to reduce the strips so the outside background strip is .5 inch. I also trimmed off the corners so there is a quarter inch seam allowance off the tip of the corner triangles.

Then I added rectangles to each side and then trimmed them to triangles. Next, I added another set of border strips around the entire block. And then I repeated the trim step from before...background strip to .5 inch and corners with a quarter inch seam allowance off the tip of the corner triangles.

For the final step, I needed a triangle surrounded on two sides with the background fabric. For this I surrounded two 1.75 inch squares with strips and then cut them in half to get four triangles with borders. I then sewed these four triangles to the corners of the block. After a careful trim, I bordered the entire block again with the light fabric and gave it one more final trim.

And there you have Dear Jane B6 constructed using strip piecing techniques. I guess it is now quite obvious that I avoid paper piecing at all costs.