I was watching Fons and Porter a couple weeks ago and they showed this quilt.
I found it quite striking especially when they revealed it was a combination of two patterns, Shoofly and 54-40 or Fight. The blocks are all straight lines, no curves at all.
The only thing that kept me from starting it immediately was that triangular block in the middle of the 54-40 or fight block.
Traditional piecing methods make it quite time consuming and subject to error. I kept wracking my brain trying to come up with an easier way to piece that section. I did it. I figured out how to strip piece this section.
Cut out the triangles. Cut strip of white 3-1/2" wide. Lay the edge of the triangle along he edge of the strip and sew in place. Repeat with other triangles until you run out of strip.
Press seam toward colored triangle. Sew another strip to other side of triangles. Cut apart and square up the block to measure 4" plus seam allowance. It really works and none of that pesky trying to match the points properly. Try it out.
The original quilt had scraps in the small squares running throughout the blocks. I thought it would be more orderly to make the small 2" squares all the same color. What do you think?
The blocks are 12" and I figured it to measure 84" x 118" for a total of 63 blocks. Of course, you can adjust it to any size you want.
54-40 or Fight Shoofly
