I can see where a quilt pattern could be intimidating, and this one could fall into that category pretty easily. I like to think of myself as an “Intermediate” skilled quilter, but the first glance at the way these quilt parts were laid out in the pattern book had me thinking I should stick to Jelly-Roll quilts.

It eventually made sense, that there would be directions to cut pieces of different fabrics and place them at their appropriate points, but (and you’ll have to visualize this here, sorry — no pics) I found myself hesitantly engaged with instructions that resembled a spreadsheet from work.

(Despite my blog name, “That’s It I, Quilt/Quit !” retirement to quilting has not come to pass yet.)

So I’m passing on a tip to help make sense of complexity. Come up with your own “Cutting Plan”. Translate the pattern into language that YOU understand.

Look at each piece of the pattern instructions, and take a notebook (I use a Rocketbook – more on that in another post maybe) and write down how YOU interpret the pattern.

With the Infinity Quilt for example, I wrote the part, the fabric, the size, the quantity and, because I’m always getting interrupted in my quilting life, a check-box to remember which one I’m on.

In any occurrence where Jaqueline De Jonge has a 3/4 or 1/4 measurement, I’ve been rounding up to the nearest 1/2 inch. This is the great part about paper piecing, as you are sewing along the sew line of the paper, it matters not that your piece is a little over-sized. My Stripology rule measures in 1/2 inches, so this makes it work better for me, and I don’t think in the long run I will be wasting any fabric.

Writing the cutting plan the night before helps motivate me to get the next parts cut out, and progress cheers me on.. 🙂