Now that all the squares are cut, it was time to decide which fabrics to put together for the first corner triangles. I have five dark-ish and seven light-ish fabrics (plus a few plain off-white small squares) and I like contrast, so I set them out somewhat randomly but with contrast in mind.
I also tried to keep a reasonably interesting set of leftover small squares for the second corner triangles, which I decided to not worry about until after I’ve decided on the blocks.
Here’s how things settled out:
Now the small squares get matched up (right sides together) with the large squares, and I am happy with Past Me for taking the time to pencil lines on the wrong side of the small squares indicating the line to be sewn — today I was feeling lazy and might’ve been inclined to just eyeball it. But this will turn out better.
Then it occurred to me that while I had the squares nice and stable on the machine, I might as well sew a second line and make even littler squares out of the waste. I suspect I’ll use them on the backing or something, or maybe they’ll end up being a potholder or some other small project. This line I did eyeball, kind of; I put the original line just outside the right side of the presser foot.
Then I cut between the two lines. Now I have a pile of 36 four-inch squares made from the waste fabric, and 36 eight-inch squares which each have a triangle on one corner.
I’m going to rationalize not ironing these right now on the theory that if I wait until I’ve decided on what the blocks are going to be, I’ll be able to press intelligently and make the seams nest when I sew the blocks together. It’s a good theory. We’ll see how it works out.
Possibly later I’ll press the small squares open just to have a mindless thing to do, but I’m going to leave the decisions about the actual blocks until there’s daylight again.