Before we begin, I’ll just say right now: Don’t let the week-number thing cause you any angst, cos this is a sew-at-your-own-pace quilt-along. It’s simply because I don’t know what else to name the posts, and this may help make it easier to look back at past posts in the event you need to review any of the information.

Here’s a link to the schedule, where I’m gonna try to remember to make each week’s link live and clickable, so you can go directly to any post you’d like to visit as we go along.

Here’s a link to the Mad Dash category in general, where you can browse all the posts related to this quilt and sew-along at any time.

So now . . . on to the next thing!

I talked a bit about this last week, because I figured some of you would be anxious to get started, but I’m still gonna hit on it again this week. I’m talking about cutting and sewing the blocks.

I showed you my green blocks I had cut out last week, and now I have some of them sewn up:

And I started cutting some pink ones. I cut out about 10 blocks at a time, a few of each size . . .

As I’m working with a piece of fabric, I cut pieces for several blocks while I have that piece at hand, because it saves time in the long run.

So as I cut, I cut some for background pieces, and some for block pieces, and lay them on my table like this:

The top row is for backgrounds, and the bottom row is for blocks. Then when I get a few cut, I match them up in sets, one background and one block set of pieces all together, and put them in my tray to be sewn:

I lay the extras in the corner, to be matched up with other fabrics later.

When the tray is full, I sew these up before I cut any more, just to keep all my pieces from getting mixed up, or having to worry about what I’m going to do with them while they’re waiting.

Here’s my first pink block:

I’m using pinks for my background, and the greens are my block. If you end up with a block that has both colors in it, you’re doing it wrong! Each block should be one color grouping or the other, but not both together.

I also mentioned my Tally Sheet that I put in my notebook to help me keep track of the blocks I’m making. I sure don’t wanna make more than I need! There’s enough sewing in this quilt without doing extra! I added a little flag marker to that page, so that I can flip right to the tally sheet and my cutting instructions when I open my notebook.

If you want to cut more than a few blocks at a time because you’re on a cutting spree, my friend, Linda, uses this great idea: She puts each block on a paper plate, then stacks the Paper Plates together, one block to a plate, and it keeps them all separated, yet they remain all in one pile. You could also use little baggies, or even envelopes to contain them. I save a lot of envelopes from junk mailings to use for random things, and they could come in handy for this! With any of these methods, you can use your paper plates, baggies, or envelopes over and over again.

When sewing, I work on only one block at a time. Since the colors are so closely alike, it keeps me from sewing the wrong pieces into the wrong blocks. I always have at least one leader/ender project going at any given moment, so I use one of those while I’m piecing my Mad Dash blocks, and it moves those projects further along at the same time. I always feel like I’m getting a free quilt top when I’ve leader/endered an entire scrap quilt to completion!

So, I hope these little tips help you. As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. We’re just gonna keep working on our stockpile of blocks for a couple of weeks. You’ll be a pro at making them by the time we move on to the next step, so you should be good and comfortable with the process by then!