Squaring up

[liffland]

My friend has a question I can't seem to help her with.

Her sister is making blocks which, when all assembled, will be put together to make up a quilt. Problem is, now that she's got them all assembled she sees that her stitching has not been perfect and she needs to square up all of them to a uniform size.

Not too difficult, at first glance, I thought. But problem is that there is a square block in the middle of each larger block. She is worried that changing edges will change appearance of placement of center block.

Any simple solutions for making sure the center square is always centered?

I offered a simple solution, as well as the advice that, to the naked eye, slight imperfections in the final placement of the center block would not be significant enough to worry about.

Any suggestions?

Please answer at heleniffland@hotmail.com

Thanks

[Grammie]

You could add sashing to the blocks and then enlarge the center with sashing to match up. Maybe even just sashing to center block will do it that is if reducing the center block is not an option due to pattern. You first need to get the unfinished block size before determining what to do about the center Block. It would be easier to resize and piece the center block than to repiece all the surrounding blocks.

It depends on the difference in size. You can fudge an eigth but if you are a quarter of an inch off that would make me crazy.

Hopefully one of the wonderful piecers who visit here will offer a better suggestion. Good luck

[sew4fun05]

I just saw this and agree with Grammie. I had blocks to put together from a BOM I won from our Guild. I did the sashing around the finished squares & then squared up to a new size & pieced together. Once complete you could not tell that all the centers were in the middle. Another way to do this is once you have the sashing on the blocks you tilt them to a slight angle and then square. This thows the blocks off center and then easier to hide any abnormalities. Good luck with your project.

[Patch]

This seems like the same problem I'm having with my Corn and Beans. I started stitching with my patchwork foot, but it's supposed to be 1/4 inch from the needle to edge of foot, and the line for 1/4 inch on the Bernina is really about 3/8 inch. After stitching a bunch of seems according to the machine guide, I noticed when I tried to piece the segments the seem ran over the points instead of just meeting them, so switched to using the foot as the guide. I didn't want to go back and redo each seam, so just kept on going with it, trying to make it work. I found myself restitching seems larger at the end, because points wouldn't meet sometimes. So annoying!

I hope I've learned something. I should have checked out my guides with something first, I guess. Pooh. Well, that's why I'm doing this BOM, to get some practice on things I haven't done before.

Anybody have suggestions for triangles/points matching? etc.?

[quiltmonkey]

Hey Patty (Patch):

Have you ever used triangle paper to piece your triangles? I love, love LOVE triangle paper. I always use triangle paper to piece these buggers because you're not messing with stitching the bias and it comes out very accurate.

You can buy triangle paper by the roll, or you can purchase the triangle software by Brenda Henning (Trianglulations) and print out any size you need (I have both, and both work great). You use the paper as a guide, stitching on the dotted line with a reduced stitch width (1.2 or something like that), then you cut on the solid lines with the rotary cutter and tear the paper off at the very end. It's way cool and all the triangles are the same size.

I always use the edge of the 1/4" foot on my Bernina as the guide when piecing. In fact, I strive to do a scant 1/4" seam when piecing because after stitching and pressing it makes up for that.

[Patch]

I saw the triangle paper and really wanted to use, it but this BOM came with it's own instructions, so I thought I had to use them. If the triangle paper comes in all different sizes I'm going to try and match it up with the instructions I get for the next block, if there's triangles. What fun! I actually LOVE triangles when they work right, so I'm certainly going to be using the paper in the future, I think. Thanks for the tip!

[chickenscratch]

How far off are the blocks? If they are only 1/4 off all around she could simply trim them down just a little bit and have a block that is a bit smaller.

If it is a matter of having more material on one side of the square than the other, I would center the square under a square ruler and see where edge hits in relationship to distance from the center. If all the edges are different distances from the center square, see which one has the least measurement and trim all the others to that measurement. It may alter the size of the blocks a tiny bit, but it won't alter the pattern unless there are points on the outer edges.

Hope this helps a little bit.

[Patch]

But wouldn't it be a pain with a block the wrong size? I guess if you're using sashing you could add the extra 1/4" to that, huh? But if you don't want to use sashing you're gonna have a funny-lookin' quilt, aren't ya?

[quiltmonkey]

If you're going to trim up the outside edges of the blocks, be real careful especially if the outside pieces of the blocks have half square triangles -- you could trim too much off and then lose the very tips of your points when you piece these blocks together. I hate it when my points are not sharp and pointy! I am really picky, so if that happens to me, I have to rip and start over.

Here's another thought: How about starting over and make a completely new block -- consider the first block was a practice piece. Something that might help control your fabric better is to lightly spray starch the fabrics and press before cutting new pieces to sew together. Be consistent when sewing your 1/4" seam line and use pins to hold the fabric pieces together. When I'm piecing (especially points and tricky seams) I usually "peek" at my seams to make sure I've got my points and seams matching. Do you use a piece of scrap fabric when you start out sewing the piecs at the beginning and at the end....when you chain stitch your pieces? For me, sewing on scrap fabrics at the start and at the end of chain stitching my pieces really helps me... that way I'm all lined up my with the 1/4" seam line and I start out right at 1/4" seam. I've had good success with these methods.

Do a bunch of practice blocks before you start on the "real meal deal" I've learned from my mystakes and trust me, I think I've made every mistake known to quilters! Have fun!

[Patch]

Shana, posted response and new pic on my other thread re this.