Making Blocks

[madampolo]

I am working away at making different blocks for my king quilt. I learned something today, and that is don't use a scant quarter inch when you have a lot of 2 1/4 patches sewn together with half square points on the edges of the block. My 12 1/2 inch block turned out to be 13 inches, and squaring it up shaved off the points. I am still going to use the block, but it may be one of those that are placed somewhere hidden. I guess the lesson learned is be careful of sewing a scant quarter. Look at your block's edges first.

[madampolo]

I should add that I thought about resewing a line or two to make it smaller, but the block has a solid piece running down the middle of it and half solids going the opposite direction. Therefore, I couldn't sew in further without ripping an awful lot. Too late now, anyway.

[Marebear]

That's too bad - I know I have never considered that. I'll keep it in mind for my future sewing.
Thanks

[bkthomas]

Joyce, Getting old is not for sissies and neither is quilting! I am doing both! Quilting is a challenge, I think we all have to figure out a lot of variables in quilting - best of luck to you on your quilting journey!!!!

[auntiemern]

If I ever manage to make a perfect block, I will be doing the happy dance.

[Divine Daisy]

thats what applique is for!

[Granny Judy]

Yup.. Made that mistake... Now If there are points around the edge.. I take a deeper seam and forget about the size. Somehow it all works out in the end. And if there is ever a perfect block in my future, I'll sure be surprised.

[coffeebreak]

That math in quilting is so bad! I kind of did the same thing and couldn't for the life of me figure out why! I cut squares of 3,1/2. Then I made HST out of some of them...and some were just HS..making them 3in sq. However, I then put them together with a 3,1/2in whole sq and couldn't figure why it all didn't match! Even worse, I thought it was the fabric's fault and cut them all again (enough for full quilt)with iron on interfacing on the back so the fab wouldn't stretch...and still, it all didn't match up! Then I cut some AGAIN but this time at least I only cut for one block...and still...pulling my hair out! Dummy me...when you take from some, you have to take FROM ALL!!! I should have cut those whole squares to 3", not 3,1/2! I just worked on another one...top is done, and this is when I finally figured this out. I needed the HST and whole squares. I cut them all the same size and then when squaring up the HST...I also CUT DOWN the whole square to the same size as the HST. Sewn together...it worked great!

[madampolo]

Thanks for sharing your experience. It is amazing what we go through, isn't it? I made three more blocks today. One had a lot of HST in them that were 2 1/2 inches. Needless to say, it didn't turn out great. I did two more with just 3 1/2 blocks, and boy did I hit those seams on the nose. Thanks again.