So I happened to be making prairie points and decided to turn the event into a tutorial! Don’t know what prairie points are? Well…they’re traditionally used as a finishing touch to quilts - they’re little folded, repeated triangles of fabric that make a sawtooth design. Here’s a good traditional example I found here:

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(Photo credit: calamity Kim!  Thanks for letting me include this, Kim!!)

The good news is you do NOT have to make each triangle separately. I repeat: you DO NOT have to make each triangle separately. Lot of folks still do, especially if they want each prairie point to be a different color/print.

I say f(&* that. I’m going to show you how to make long strips of continuous, nesting prairie points from a single length of fabric. It’s fast, it easy, its fun. Here we go…

Step 1:

Cut a strip of fabric. The width should be 4 times bigger than the size of your finished prairie point. Fold the strip in half and iron the crease. Open and whip out your scissors. Here’s comes step #2.

continuous prairie points step 1

Step #2:

Using a ruler, mark out squares along one side of the crease. Snip all the way to the fold. On the other side, off-set your squares by 1/2 the size of your squares. (If you’re making 2″ squares, skip the first 1″ and start marking from there.) Cut out that dead space at the start of your second side - you don’t want it there.

Step #3:

Here comes the origami. Don’t panic that I don’t have a pic of folding the very first square. I got so excited that I forgot to take a picture. Like I said, don’t worry - they are all folded the same way, from the first prairie point to the last. Start with the first, top square. Fold the top right hand corner down so that it meets with the bottom left hand corner.

Step #4

Now take the top left hand point and fold it down so that it meets with the bottom right hand corner. Done! Now, move on to the next square (on the bottom row this time…)

Keep on repeating this again and again. Nest the prairie points as you go by making the final fold (step #4) *over* the last prairie point. Stick ‘em where ever. I would baste along the exposed edge before attempting to insert them into any seams.

Enjoy!

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