From Linda (in Dallas):
- For the first pair, use 2 fabrics that have a definite wrong and right side ; a white on white print and tone on tone bright. That way if a cut piece goes walkabout a bit, it's easier to match it's shape into the liberated "grid. " (I used a solid color and a w-o-w so had a slight panic when a piece stuck to another).
- When matching seams, since seams aren't perpendicular to cut edge, you should only match pin with seams at the 1/4" spot from the edge. The pin won't match the seams further into the piece, and you'll distort the fabric if you try to force a match.
Julie noted:
- The intersections of all the "squares" aren't really supposed to match up, are they? Seems like if you're cutting the blocks wonky, there's no way for them to match when you sew them back together... at least mine don't!
Krista suggested that we take the same approach as in our Tic Tac Toe blocks:
- make 3 vertical cuts
- swap 2nd & 4th strips between blocks, and sew together to make two striped blocks.
- Press the two blocks in opposite directions
- make 3 horizontal cuts
- swap the 2nd and fourth rows from one block to the other
- stitch and press
Does anyone else have a tip to share?
As I said in my post, the "matching" of seams that we quilters are so bent on doing kinda goes out the window on this one, but your example made it clear that it was okay! Really, the pieces being left chained together made the block end well, and most do match enough to bring a smile at the completion! They ended pretty square, too. Great block Sophie!
ReplyDelete:-} pokey
Why aren't we sewing these in strips, like the tic-tac-toe was done last year? I hadn't looked at the directions earlier, but it seems this would be easier, and would minimize the chance of mis-orienting one of the 16 little bits:
ReplyDelete- make 3 vertical cuts
- swap 2nd & 4th strips between blocks, and sew together to make two striped blocks. Press the two blocks in opposite directions
- make 3 horizontal cuts
- swap the 2nd and fourth rows from one block to the other
- stitch and press
I may just have to make a couple of pairs this week, to try this out.
my dear husband was kind enough to point out all the seams that didn't match, with the comment "quality control" (LOL) I guess I've trained him too well and am now living with the quilt police!
ReplyDeleteDH as the quilt police -- sounds like a horror story ;-)
ReplyDeleteI could tell Krista and all of you that I took this approach to making the blocks because I thought it would be good practice for sewing "liberated" squares and odd angles together, but the truth is ... doh! I didn't think of doing it like the tic-tac-toe blocks ;-)