I decided it was time to expand and I decided to learn how to make an 8 point star with Y seams. This year I've decided it's time to do less quilts and more toward the learning processes and accuracy. So I'm concentrating on learning blocks. For this one I used Edith Sitka's (sp?) beginner 8 point star utube tutorial.
All went well until I got to the 4 square corner blocks . I'm very much a visual learner and I took things slow and checked and rechecked. I had no major problems with the cutting, piecing the point and I was amazed that my triangle inserts were way easier than I thought. Well until I got to the square inserts. Her video I thought was excellent visually and with her explanations until I got to that point. Then she assumed if you can do the triangle inserts you'd just follow through easily to the square inserts. She started to explain and then said continue as you did the triangle inserts. I tried another & seam video that was from Kate or Kaye somebody and I thought maybe I got it but not as well as I had hoped.
Here's my block: (You can see that I do have two errors in it. The center points did not all meet exactly and were off a little and there is also a one stitch tuck in the upper right red diamond but lets forget them for a second) 8ptstar1.JPG It doesn't look all that bad for a very first attempt.
Now on closer look you see the major problem and just how miserably I failed with those corner square inserts. My attempts totally ruined what had started out as a good try.
8ptstar2.JPG
1. The lower left square is larger than the other three corners. I honestly don't think I had used the wrong square measurements on that one but I must have. Also I did starch all the squares very carefully after I had cut them out.
2. The top right side point and the lower left side point go right to the edge without having a quarter inch seam allowance at the edge as the others do.
3. What the heck happened to the bottom edge there is a half inch variation from one side to the other. You can see that the horizontal seam is lined up on the 5" line and those center pieces lay within the 3 1/4 to the 7 1/3 inch lines. So the distortion appears to be occurring at the lower panels.
Does anyone know of a better video for inserting squares into corners? I know I do have a problem with my mind and my visual go in opposite directions. It's like a verbal/visual mirror image but it doesn't happen with everything, just certain types of things. Also I'm wondering if one of the mistakes is that sometimes when inserting the first edge of the square and lining up the fabric if sometimes I'm lining up with the rabbit ear edge and sometimes I line up with edge that is 1/4 inch down from the rabbit ear point? I just feel this shouldn't be so hard for me to see or logically figure out.
The one thing I have learned though is that for my first learning block of any type don't set the machine on 2 or 2.5 stitches and use a 3 or baste. And secondly I now know why people use thread catchers . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
All went well until I got to the 4 square corner blocks . I'm very much a visual learner and I took things slow and checked and rechecked. I had no major problems with the cutting, piecing the point and I was amazed that my triangle inserts were way easier than I thought. Well until I got to the square inserts. Her video I thought was excellent visually and with her explanations until I got to that point. Then she assumed if you can do the triangle inserts you'd just follow through easily to the square inserts. She started to explain and then said continue as you did the triangle inserts. I tried another & seam video that was from Kate or Kaye somebody and I thought maybe I got it but not as well as I had hoped.
Here's my block: (You can see that I do have two errors in it. The center points did not all meet exactly and were off a little and there is also a one stitch tuck in the upper right red diamond but lets forget them for a second) 8ptstar1.JPG It doesn't look all that bad for a very first attempt.
Now on closer look you see the major problem and just how miserably I failed with those corner square inserts. My attempts totally ruined what had started out as a good try.
8ptstar2.JPG
1. The lower left square is larger than the other three corners. I honestly don't think I had used the wrong square measurements on that one but I must have. Also I did starch all the squares very carefully after I had cut them out.
2. The top right side point and the lower left side point go right to the edge without having a quarter inch seam allowance at the edge as the others do.
3. What the heck happened to the bottom edge there is a half inch variation from one side to the other. You can see that the horizontal seam is lined up on the 5" line and those center pieces lay within the 3 1/4 to the 7 1/3 inch lines. So the distortion appears to be occurring at the lower panels.
Does anyone know of a better video for inserting squares into corners? I know I do have a problem with my mind and my visual go in opposite directions. It's like a verbal/visual mirror image but it doesn't happen with everything, just certain types of things. Also I'm wondering if one of the mistakes is that sometimes when inserting the first edge of the square and lining up the fabric if sometimes I'm lining up with the rabbit ear edge and sometimes I line up with edge that is 1/4 inch down from the rabbit ear point? I just feel this shouldn't be so hard for me to see or logically figure out.
The one thing I have learned though is that for my first learning block of any type don't set the machine on 2 or 2.5 stitches and use a 3 or baste. And secondly I now know why people use thread catchers . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
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