Union Jack

These Union Jacks are giving me a heck of a time!  First of all, you knoooowww how I LOVVVE paper piecing, right??!!
So, this first one is paper pieced and took me FOREVVERRRR!

I got it from the most current Quiltmaker magazine (I think) and shrank the foundation to 70% of the original, then had to recalculate the middle strips because they are not foundation pieced.

Well, I was bound and determined to find a better way, so, I measured the strips, made strip sets, and trimmed them to a foundation template...yes, I went way overboard with my blues.

Then put them all together (only messed up one of the four rectangles and had to redo it)
And the second one took much less time, even with the redo!

Now, I just have to make two more.  Hmmm, not sure I have the energy for that tonight.  Maybe some nice binding work while the boys watch the Lobo game.  If its a good game, there won't be much binding going on.