Monday, October 19, 2026

City Line QAL - Week 5

Graphic with photo of 8 blue fabrics in the background and a digital mockup of the City Line Quilt in the foreground. Text reads "City Line Quilt Along, Sept.21 - Oct.26, 2026. Week 5".
City Line pattern available here

Are you ready to slice up a perfectly good pieced panel?  I'm not going to lie.  This is the part where I have to take a lot of deep breaths!

This week we'll be completing Steps 2 through 6 on page 6 of the pattern.

Here's where we left off last week:

Assorted blue and grey patchwork strips oriented vertically,sewn side by side. Composed of pairs of blue strips side by side with the darker fabric on the left. Grey triangles at each corner of each strip pair shape the ends of the strip pairs into points. Additinal grey rectangles above and/or below each strip pair vary the vertical positions of the blue pairs.
Thank you to White Owl Textiles for sending me
 these fabrics from their Fundamentals collections. 
Scroll to the bottom of this post for additional fabric details.


To measure and make the cut all the way across this panel, I cleared everything except my cutting mat off my table.  I spread the quilt on the table, letting the bottom of the panel hang off the side.

Quilt top with strips of assorted blue fabric on a grey background, draped over a table, overhanging over the left side of the table. there is a quilting ruler and a rotary cutter on top of the quilt.

After confirming that the top of the quilt was straight and square with the sides, thanks to all my pinning, I used a 24" ruler and the first method described in my tutorial about cutting wide strips to cut away the top of the panel.  Did I double check the required measurement and my ruler position half a dozen times before wielding the rotary cutter?  Yes.  Yes, I did.  Take your time at this step.

Blue and grey quilt top on a table. A cutting mat peeks out from under the quilt top. Quilt top is partially cut and a quilting riler and rotary cutter are positioned to extend the cut.

Ta dah!  Two haves.

Quilt top cut in two parts horizontally across the middle. The top section is shorter than the lower section. Quilt top is compose of assorted blue vertical strips at various heights on a grey background.

Now slice off a wide strip from the bottom half.  

Section of a quilt top with strips of assorted blue fabric on a grey background, on a table, partially cut across the blue strips. A quilting ruler and a rotary cutter are positioned on top of the fabric to extend the cut.

Quilt top with assorted blue vertical columns, sliced into 3 sections. The top and bottom sections are of equal height. The center sections is a thinner strip.

These two cut carved out a strip from the middle of the panel.

Now slice that strip up.

A quilt top featuring assorted blue vertical strips is sliced into 5 wide top and lower sections and 3 skinny strips in the middle.


Flip a couple of those skinny strips.

A quilt top featuring assorted blue vertical strips is sliced into 2 wide top and lower sections and 3 skinny strip sections in the middle. The upper and lower skinny strips are flipped 180 degrees to reverse the colour order of its parts relative to the other sections.

Sew those skinny strips back together.  If you pressed as the pattern directed, you should be able to nest the seams, as well as spin the seam intersections when you press.  Refer to my tutorial on nesting and spinning seams.  You'll probably want to peek at the one about spinning multiple intersections as well if you're not a habitual seam spinner.

Pressing and spinning after sewing two of the strips together, than adding the third strip, will make things easier.  I'm a big fan of pressing as I go.

Take a peek at my spun seams.  Aren't those little 4-patches in the seam allowances cute.  Enjoy them now before they end up inside the quilt!

The reverse of a patchwork unit showing the seam allowances and the small four patch design created by spinning the seam allowances when pressing..

The reverse of a patchwork unit showing the seam allowances and the small four patch design created at the seam intersectionsby spinning the seam allowances when pressing.

The reverse of a patchwork unit showing the seam allowances and the small four patch design created at the seam intersectionsby spinning the seam allowances when pressing.

That's it for this week.  It's not a lot of sewing, but that gut-check cutting was a little bit daunting so I gave myself an easy week.  Here's where I'm stopping until next week.

3 sections of a quilt top in progess. The upper and lower sections feature 24 assorted blue fabric strips oriented vertically, arranged side by side, each with a pointy tip. The center section is composed of small assorted blue squares laid out in a 24 square x 3 square grid.

We'll wrap up next week with sashing and borders.  I can't wait to see your finished tops!

Happy sewing,
Joanne

Fabrics for my version contributed by White Owl Textiles


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