Yay! If you made it through trimming put your hand in the air because a virtual high five is flying your way!

We finally get to layout our pieces, decide on a layout and start piecing blocks. Lets discuss how to make an Entropy quilt block again. We need (4) 4.5" squares and (12) 4.5" half square triangles. We have two layout options, "Normal" and "Inverse". The difference between the two is that for the Inverse, as seen below you start with the HST side that has color oriented outwards with the background color oriented inward. 

If you are working from the pattern and not doing a scrappy version you can skip ahead to the "Piecing Blocks Section". 

Scrappy Version Layout

So you decided to do a scrappy version, or a version  I suggested in the, "Precuts and Cutting" blog post.  Head back to that post to see how the the colors are laid out after reading this post. I will go over just a few layout options to show the basics of constructions here. 

For the scrappy "normal" version, if you chose to do a rainbow with your scraps, I recommend laying out your HSTs in order of ROYGBIV + BW (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Black and white). This way you can construct blocks by color like below. Set blocks into piles of (12) 45." HSTs and (4) 4.5" squares.  Here are examples of  Violet/indigo , blue, green and yellow blocks. 

If you have more than 12 purple/indigo HSTS, that is fine you can still use them. I recommend using a few blocks of indigo and switching them into the  blocks next to or below it, so it has a better flow. The same with the rest of the colors. You can distribute the colors and mix and match. 

Here's an example of a mocked up scrappy rainbow entropy quilt. 

Inverse Ombre Fat Quarter Version

For the Inverse Ombre Fat Quarter version you will construct each color as its own separate entropy block for colors A-P. For example, the layout will look like this. The colored side of the HST will start in the upper corner and the squares will be the same color. 

Fat Eighth/Quarter "Normal" Ombre Version 

You will orient your background towards the top left corner and your squares will also be the same color as your background fabrics. 

Layout Tips

Use a large piece of batting tacked to a wall to layout your blocks like pictured. I literally used tacs and pushed them through the batting and wall to hold it up. 

Piecing Normal Entropy Blocks

As you can see, for a normal block you will orient your background towards the upper left corner and lay the blocks out as pictured below. 

Sew the units together in columns as pictured below. I prefer to press seams open, but you can press to preference. Then sew the columns together and press seams open or to your preference again. 

Note: To piece these, I prefer to switch out my 1/4" presser foot for my walking foot that has a 1/4" marking. Why? Because of how seams run diagonally on HSTs, using my walking feet and a dual feed allows for quick piecing and less issues getting hung up/tugging on seams. 

As you can see, for a inverse block you will orient your colored part of the half square triangle towards the upper left corner and lay the blocks out as pictured below. 

Sew the units together in columns as pictured below. I prefer to press seams open, but you can press to preference. Then sew the columns together and press seams open or to your preference again.  Blocks should measure 16.5" x16.5".

NOTE: To piece these, I prefer to switch out my 1/4" presser foot for my walking foot that has a 1/4" marking. Why? Because of how seams run diagonally on HSTs, using my walking feet and a dual feed allows for quick piecing and less issues getting hung up/tugging on seams. 

 Watch me chain piece a block in this video!

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Goals for Week 6

Determine Layout

Piece approximately 1/3 of the Entropy Blocks