Sweet and Sour - Second Set of Fabrics

I started the second set of strippy blocks.  My plan is to cut the fabrics in fifths to create variety; I cut the first set of fabrics in fourths.  As it turns out, this session called for a bit of problem-solving as little challenges came up.

Design notes for the next photos

When I ironed this olive fabric, I found it was narrow and width of fabric - not exactly a squarish fat quarter that I've been working with.  I cut it in half on the fold, giving me two pieces about 10" x 20".  Since I'm planning to cut the fabric in fifths, theoretically, one strip would be approximately in the middle.  So how do you do that when you have two narrow strips?  My solution:  I found a nice dark green scrap about 4.5" x 18" to lay in the center, which will overlap the olive strips.  I'll place the three-strip layer on the very top to make sure the cuts are good.  After the five cuts are made I can move the pieces into their original positions within the stacks.

 

I didn't trim the fabrics to 18" wide.  Since there will be five strips, I want more width to start.  The bright green is not as wide as the other fabrics, and it will be buried in the stack.  So I marked its edge with a yellow flower pin to indicate where the boundary is when I cut.

 

Turns out the reddish stripe is even shorter, so I moved the flower pin.

Olive strips laid on the top.  They're quite long and I want to trim them.

I considered different ways to trim off the excess fabric.  I decided to just fold back to the desired length and cut on the fold.  Easy!  And I didn't have to disturb the stack.

Dark green strip laid over the the olive strips

Dark green folded back to reveal how it bridges the gap.

The cuts for the center strip must fall within the edges of the dark green.

I thought I had finished setting up the seven-fabric stack when I saw two of the fabrics sitting on the ironing board, waiting to be ironed.  Arrggh!  They really should have gone on the bottom of the stack, but I didn't want to have to re-align all those corners.  Another challenge: I needed to trim off the selvages and had to have access to the cutting mat where the stack was laying.  I removed the top layer (which probably wouldn't have stayed in place), then carefully picked up the rest of the stack and moved it to the bed.  When the last two fabrics were ironed and trimmed, I moved the stack back to the cutting mat, placed the last two fabrics on the stack, then the top layer.  You can see one of the last fabrics--orange and yellow--peeking out on the right.  Like the top layer, those last fabrics will be moved to their proper positions after the cuts.