32 Easy Pieces

Day 246: "32 Easy Pieces" sounds like a beginner's piano album, but that's all it takes to create this ultimate stash-buster quilt block. It could not be more forgiving! There are no seams to line up with each other, no points to match, only strips to be sewn together in straight lines. The Potato Chip pattern called for all the pieces to be the same size, but I found that it was better to make the outer row a little wider and the four corner pieces a little longer in order to have plenty of leeway when trimming to a 12" square. You will need 18 pieces 2 x 3.5", 10 pieces 2.5 x 3.5" and 4 pieces 2.5 x 4". The sets of 10 and 4 will be used in the outer row. Lay all the pieces for the block out on a board and arrange them to your liking. Take a picture, because it's easy to get confused when you start assembling them, but almost the entire block can be chain-processed (i.e., without cutting the thread). Beginning at the center, stitch two pieces together along their long edges with a 1/4" seam. Next, sew the two "top" pieces together along the short sides. Cut the center loose from the chain of sewing and sew on the lefthand vertical single. Now sew the two "bottom" pieces together along their short sides. Cut the center and previously stitched "top" piece off the chain. Add the righthand vertical single to the center. Now your "top" pair is free. Add it to the center, and continue by stitching the two lefthand pieces of row 3 together. Once you see how this works, it's easy to move outward, sewing on sides or tops/bottoms as needed. Ideally, you'll only have to break the thread and start over when applying the final strip to the outer edge, but even if you screw up, it's no more serious than having to start sewing from a new thread. That said, the photo you took at the start of this project is going to come in handy now. It's easy to lose track of whether you're sewing verticals or horizontals together, or which piece was supposed to be attached next. As you can see, the pieces stack like bricks, one brick stacked atop the junction of the two bricks beneath it. To continue this in the full quilt, the next 12" block will be turned 90 degrees. If you don't want to make your quilt entirely scrappy, you could make the row just inside the final row from solid-coloured fabrics. For this project, though, I want to use up the fabrics which have gone into my Pandemic Quilts and start with something new and different.