Bernie's Mittens QAL Week Two: Stripe 3

Welcome to Week 2 of the Bernie's Mittens Quilt-Along!  Today is the last day to get the Bernie's Mittens pattern on sale and help out a local food bank with your purchase.  This is our first week of sewing, so there's plenty of time to jump in and join us!

Week 2 is the busiest sewing week of the QAL; we are making the most strips with the most pieces. My best tip for sewing the pieces together is to make sure your seam allowances are exactly a quarter-inch; there aren't very many spots that need to line up exactly in this quilt but the ones that do matter!

The best way to assemble the Bernie's Mittens quilt is to divide each stripe into thirds.  I started with the center sections, piecing one gray rectangle to the top of each white square followed by a second gray rectangle to the bottom of the same white square.

Next, I separated my black squares into two piles, those that needed to be sewn to white and those that needed to be sewn to pink, and sewed all of those pairs.  The pattern calls for the entire stripe to be pressed up, but these pairs don't nest during final construction, so go ahead and press everything towards the darker fabric.

Then I sewed my last set of pairs.  Here the pressing direction does matter, so be sure to press up!

After that, I finished the top and bottom thirds.  Since both thirds required sewing pink to white, I chain-pieced all of them at the same time.  If they weren't matching the same colors, I wouldn't have done them in the same group.  Again, make sure you press everything up!

Once the thirds were done, I sewed them to my center section and Week 2 was done!

I'd love to see your progress - tag me @bluepipdesigns on Instagram and use the hashtag #BerniesMittensQAL so everyone else can see it too!  The hardest part is done - the next two sections have far fewer stripes.

=======================

To get email reminders about the quilt-along, you can sign up for the BluePip Designs newsletter.  If you still need the Bernies's Mittens pattern, you can purchase it from my pattern shop.