Fun Patch Tutorial Part One

LINK to the Fun patch at Come Quilt With Me.com
Last year I made a Fun Patch after I saw QuiltSalads Flickr stream of her Asian FunPatch quilt.

Made mine from Kaffe and Kona, I think it turned out pretty sweet. See more pictures of this one at my flickr.com.

This is the plastic template I bought. I stuck a sticker on mine to keep it right side up. This helps when cutting up your strips.
HINT: Put sticker or other identifier on top side of template.

can you see the piece of grippy plastic I have on the back of my template? I added that so it doesn't slip.
HINT: Put non-skid plastic or dots on bottom of template to help during cutting.

The template uses 3.5 inch strips of fabric.
HINT: All pieces must be cut from fabric that is facing the same direction, e.g. face up. I stack up 4-6 strips face up and cut.

Notice my little ladybug sticker? I keep that sticker face up so that I cut all my pieces the same.

Hint: seriously, as you work down the fabric strip. Keep that sticker up and cutting them all the same angle... this is the voice of experience.
Don't want to spring for that template use 3.5x7.25 bricks, mark the long sides at 2 inches, slice diagonally thru, but do it the same direction every time. . .. (example: upper right to lower left)

Above you see a stack of white with blue polka dots ,which is my background, and a blue/green stack, which I will call my foreground.
HINT: you need equal amounts of background and foreground.

HINT: Each square foot takes 8 rectangles. Say I wanted to make a queen size with 56 square feet (no border) I would need 448 rectangles...gulp... its easy for me to do the math when I figure out it out on a square foot basis. ...

I planned mine to be 4 green and 4 blue per foot.

Sew pairs by sewing long sides of foreground together. I will organizing mine to be green on the left/blue on the right. If you look at my other quilt here I was totally random with color placement and it was fine with me. I am just doing it this way, this time.

HINT: If you want to trim them to the same size because you are not exactly 6.5 inches square. "In pairs" is the spot to do it. Square them up with a square up ruler.
HINT: Begin by working in small batches to get your seams correct. Sew a few. Iron a few. Are they coming out right? adjust. Yes, you are going to happy offsetting your pieces a bit.

I am sewing mine with 2 greens/2 blues in the center, make yours however you chose.

Here is a review of the helpful HINTS:
HINT: Put sticker or other identifier on top side of template.
HINT: Put non-skid plastic or dots on bottom of template to help during cutting.
HINT: All pieces must be cut from fabric that is facing the same direction, e.g. face up. I stack up 4-6 strips face up and cut.
HINT: you need equal amounts of background and foreground.
HINT: Each square foot takes 8 rectangles.
HINT: If you want to trim them to the same size because you are off. "In pairs" is the spot to do it. Square them up with a square up ruler.
HINT: Begin by working in small batches to get your seams correct. Sew a few. Iron a few. Are they coming out right? adjust. Yes, you are going to be happy offsetting your pieces a bit.

Hope it's Helpful! Part Two is going to cover putting it together and what to do when it goes wrong, wrong, wrong. It may take a week or two for me to get to that point, so stay tuned.
Quilters Rock!