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NaBloPoMo has been kind of hard, but today I have "real" stuff to post about. Yay!!!
I made my first block for the quilt-along over at Crazy Mom Quilts. It took all of 30 minutes and I'm going to do some serious stash-busting in the process.
I do have a question for all the experienced quilters out there though. How on earth do you get all your seams to be exactly 1/4"? I have a 1/4" foot and try really hard, but somehow, by the time I get to the outside of the block, the seams don't line up because all the small inaccuracies add up to a big one at the end.
Christine over at Sew Christine is having a lovely giveaway. Go check it out.
Oh, and Josh's soccer team won their division of the President's Cup, which is the big Cup for rec soccer in Washington State, last night in a shoot-out. It was nail-biting. They are now going on to the State semi-finals. Fingers crossed...
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
A real post
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Your blog for the quilt-along looks nice! I have always wondered how quilters get all those seams to line up too...
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Josh & his soccer team on their win!
Oops not blog, block :)
ReplyDeleteI had the same problem too with sewing until I discovered a walking foot. Your bottom fabric layer always moves faster that your top layer. Walking foot's make them go through the sewing machine at the same speed.
ReplyDeleteI share your 'not quite a 1/4 inch seam' dilemma, ending up with blocks that are consistently smaller than they should be. I'm here to tell you I've solved the problem! Or should I say, Patti has. Have a look at http://hardenbrookgirl.blogspot.com/2006/09/precision-piecing-beginning.html and then http://hardenbrookgirl.blogspot.com/2006/09/seam-allowance-part-ii.html. For the first time in years, I can make a block exactly the right size. Hope it works for you.
ReplyDeleteHave you measured that your foot does sew exactly 1/4". If there is even one weft thread outside (or inside) of the measurement then by the time all your blocks are finished you could be heaps out. Some people have a marked line on their machine bed, and then if you sew really fast and go off course that doesn't help! Sometimes I do that - have speed wobbles :-0
ReplyDeleteYour block looks like it came out great to me! I echo what others said about actually making that measurement. I am so used to the 1/4" allowance for quilting that I had trouble eyeing the 1/2" allowance called for in some clothing patterns until I actually measured that sucker with a straight ruler. Turns out I had been wrong about which little hash mark was 1/2"! Practice also helps-- and I wouldn't recommend the walking foot except for the actual quilting of the quilt. Try adjusting your feed dogs. Many machines have multiple settings.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did is really easy. Assuming you're an accurate cutter, cut two strips each measuring one and a quarter inches. Sew them together and press them open. If it measures precisely 2", you've got your quarter inch.
ReplyDeleteI don't quilt but I buy a lot of quilting fabric, I was in the store the other day and the owner spent an hour and a half on the phone obviously trying to console a woman that it didn't matter if her peices wern't exactly the right size she could fix it all when she put the border on at the end, specificly that no ones were exatly 1/4 inch all the time. So don't panic!
ReplyDeleteI think your quilt block looks great. I don't have an exact 1/4" seam allowance either, but I think mine is usually close enought to get by. I do some pinning and some stretching and some ironing and call it good. (maybe I shouldn't admit this...)
ReplyDelete