I’d made a version of this in the past, so easy-peasy, right? Well, the previous one I made was stand-alone, so it didn’t have to fit in with other blocks. Measuring will be important.
First hurdle: Make a template.
Easier if you have the plastic stuff for making sewing templates. So, a trip to the quilt shop is in order. They look at me funny in there; I really expected a warmer welcome. Maybe they were surprised by the mid-day appearance of someone of working age. Maybe they were judging my gym-gear as I was planned that next. Most important lesson learned: fabric is really expensive there. I found my plastic sheets, gazed at the ruler and other gadgets, then left. I think I’m in this for the gadgets. Really, I want a cutting ruler in every size!
To make the template, you trace your pattern onto the plastic sheet, then cut it out. The quilt store lady told me I can use my rotary cutter to cut the plastic. It felt blasphemous (a cutting tool for fabric used on something that isn’t fabric?), but I did it anyway.
My first template:

Second hurdle: Using the template

It sounds easy: Put template on backside of fabric, trace with fabric marking pen, cut along line. Well, let's see… there's the flimsy plastic so that you sometimes accidentally flip it up. Then there's the marking pen.. I have a pencil. It's white. My fabric was gray. Damn. Used a regular writing pencil. Tried the white marking pencil on the dark fabrics…no go. #2 pencil it is (until I go back to the store).
Third hurdle: Cut out the pieces, which will all (so they say) be the same size because of said template. Wrong. So unbelievably wrong. After some time and measuring and cutting, I finally had 16 strips of fabric in 4 different colors.
Fourth hurdle: Sew them together. Actually this is the easy part. Except my bobbin thread got all muddled, so I needle a 20 minute break to waste craploads of thread. Once done, though, smooth sailing.
I now have a Rail Fence Block.

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