Blocks put together with letting strip

Hey Everyone, welcome back to Technique Tuesday.

Leading are narrow strips of fabric used in some quilt as you go methods to link the blocks or rows together.

The top leading strips are usually sewn on by machine but occasionally may need one edge sewn down by hand while the bottom letting piece always has one edge sewn on by machine and one on by hand.

There are many ways to add leading. Here is one method. The leading strips are pink.

The Front Leading Strip

For the top leading strip I cut the strips 1 ⅛″ in width times the length needed. For this little project I cut a piece 1 ⅛″ x 5″. The blocks I am using were made with the quilt as you go technique called stitch and flip and are about 5 ″ square.

blue and yellow 5 inch block

5 inch block

Use a ¼″ seam unless otherwise stated.

Step 1

Place the leading strip on one side of the block right sides together and raw edges lined up.

With right sides together place letting on top of one edge of the block

Leading strip on one side of block

Step 2

Sew the leading strip to the block through all 3 layers.

Sew letting to block through all layers

Leading sewn to block

Step 3

Press the seam towards the leading strip.

Press seam towards letting strip

Seam pressed

Step 4

Trim off the extra batting and backing to edge of leading strip.

Extra batting and backing trimmed off at edge of letting strip

Trim off extra batting

Step 5

Place the leading strip on top of the second block matching raw edges of the yellow fabric. Pulling back the batting and backing will help you to see.

Align letting strip with edge of second block

Leading strip aligned with second block

Step 6

Sew the leading strip to the second block through all 3 layers.

Blocks attached to each other with letting strip

Blocks sewn together with leading strip

Step 7

Press the seam towards the leading. At this point there is bulk of batting and backing behind the leading strip which will be trimmed when the back letting piece is added.

Letting strip used to sew the blocks together

Blocks attached together by pink leading strip

This piece is  approximately 5″ x 10″.

The top leading piece is now in place and the project is now ready to be turned over to add the bottom leading which I will demonstrate how to do next week on Technique Tuesday.

Happy Quilting!

Jen Transparent Signature

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