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Ah, another week gone and here we go with another bit of assembly on our Mystery Quilt. This week we're going to be combining the remaining assembled strips. Grab up the 25 pieces with the "B" center squares, and the remaining 25 triangle-strips.
Remember those round-head pins? Grab them, we're going to need them now. There will be some tricky bits here, so you might want to read through before you start sewing.
Ok, we are going to sew together these 2 different types of rectangles, along one of the LONG ends - drawing below shows the resulting piece.
The thing about this bit is that you have 2 seams that need matching here. If you don't pin first, you will probably end up with a piece that has at LEAST one of the seam junctions off-kilter.
In order to minimize this problem (or even better, eliminate it!), I use pins to hold the seams together where I want them to meet, and "ease" the rest of the length of the strips to fit between them and on either side. I put one pin on each side of the seam I'm matching, as close to the seam as I can manage, thus keeping the "wiggle" while sewing across them to a minimum.
I leave the pins in until I have sewn OVER the seams. Sometimes if a seam seems to be particularly problematic, I will baste the seam allowance area first, either by hand or machine, then go back over and sew the entire seam. I'm an accountant. I get retentive about details. Sorry.
Just as with the problem of decapitated triangles, the problem of unmatched seams is something small, but annoyingly visible. You can live with a small variation, and I'll let YOU decide just how "small" of a variation you can handle.
Allrightey then. You now have 25 pieces that look like THIS:
And 25 pieces that look like THIS:
And you are getting to be an absolute wiz kid at matching those seams, so let's do ourselves one better. Turn the pieces 90 degrees and sew those 2 different rectangles to one another... like THIS:
Once you are finished, you will have 25 of these pieced squares with an "A" stripe along one side.
Aren't you feeling crafty right about now??? You should be!
Ok - that's enough for this week. Great job - see you again next week, same quilt time, same quilt channel.
3 comments:
If I start making quilts the wife'll have me institutionalised...
...possibly not until I've finished it
Aha FOUR DINNERS, When i am sent to the institution, many quilts would be sent along with me to cover the cell walls.
Sewmouse, kindly Check Laurel Birch Fabrics on the net, many sites.
please check Lesley's blog too
http://elleinnewyork.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the links, Rauf! Lesley has great stuff, and the Laurel Burch prints are quite nice.
Now, frankly, I think either one of you lads could do what I've laid out here already without too much trouble. It's after the top is pieced and you have to do the "quilting" bit that I think you fellas would possible get bored and all.
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