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Roots
Strip Piecing
You can use a quick strip-piecing method to make the 49 nine-patch units you need for the Roots pattern shown online and in the November 2003 issue of QNM (no. 357).
To strip piece the patches, you will cut strips of fabric and stitch them together in bands of 3. For this pattern, you will need strips cut 2 1/2"-wide from both the white background fabric and a variety of print fabrics. (The more prints you use, the scrappier your quilt will look.) One set of strips will be sewn with the darker fabric on either side of a light strip, and one set will have the lighter fabric strips sewn on either side of a center dark strip.
From the right side of the fabric, gently press the seams toward the darker fabric. Line up the long edge of a sewn band with a line on your cutting mat and trim the short edge to even it using an acrylic ruler and your rotary cutter. Cut across the sewn bands to make 2 1/2"-wide segments. As you become more comfortable with rotary cutting of these segments, you will find you can layer the bands and cut both at the same time. Check frequently to make sure your cuts are at right angles to the edge of the band. For each nine-patch, you will need 2 segments with the darker fabrics on the outside and 1 strip with the light fabric on the outside.
Sew the segments together as shown in the unit diagram. With the fabrics pressed as described above, you will find the seams will "lock together" at the corners of the patches, and you should be able to sew the blocks without pinning.
The length of the strips you use will determine how many horizontal strips you will be able to cut from the bands and how many nine-patches you will have from any two fabrics. We recommend that you use strips no longer than 20". For this quilt, the more the strips you use, the more variety you will have in the nine-patches for your quilt top.
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