Addendum to the Last Post!!

I am going to document the details about how to actually do  the Snail Trail quilt.  After looking at the blocks I posted yesterday, I have decided to go with much less scrappiness with the light fabrics.  I will introduce some pale yellow into the mix and eliminate the darker tans altogether even though I did a lot of cutting!!  The book I got this quilt from is Handfuls of Scraps by Edyta Sitar and has some nice quilts in it besides this terror!  The two biggest omissions in my opinion is that (1) she doesn't mention trimming at each step which is critical and (2) the directions for putting together the quilt are almost non-existent.  There are pictures of the general order and a general direction of sewing to within 1/4 inch but that is it.  I am sure this will be the most challenging part of this quilt as it looks like a y-seam nightmare.

First Tip:  Just use a couple of fabrics for the four patches in the middle.  They are only a 1/2 finished so any pattern is lost anyway and it will save you time.  Make sure they are a very distinctive light and dark.  I am going to take my own advice and sew some more strips together and not use some of the ones I had already sewn.

Second Tip:  don't cut little squares as she suggested in her book for the centers of the "trails".  Cut long strips - one dark and one light, sew together and then cut into 1 inch lengths.  .  Take these small pieces and sew together into little four patches which will measure 1 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches.

Third Tip:  She doesn't say anything about trimming in the directions but you really have to trim at each step,    I string pieced about fifteen of the blocks at a time.  It is critical to get those first dark pieces on the proper side of the four-patch so I kept a correct block next to the sewing machine so that I would put the dark pieces in the right position.  I centered each of the first set of dark triangles using the center of the four patch as  guide.   I did this for all 15.  Then I string pieced down one side for all 15.  I then finger-pressed each one so that the seam was away from the four patch center.   I then string pieced the second dark side and finger pressed again.  Then I snipped then apart and applied the lighter triangles in the same manner.  After these were all done and finger pressed, I went to the iron and pressed each one.      You repeat this process for each of the four sets of half square triangles. After the first set of triangles, you can pin both sides at the same time as there isn't overlap at the edges.  The last step is to use a small ruler and make sure you square up the block to the dimensions for each step in the pattern.  Despite my best efforts, sometimes they are a little bigger and sometimes they are a little short but just take that into consideration when you put the next layer on making the seam just a mite smaller.