Monday, January 2, 2017

PROBLEMS WITH PIECING

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had wonderful holidays.  Now it's time to get back to routine.  Have you made any New Year's resolutions?  I haven't, but I have decided that I need to concentrate on being a better piecer.  Do you remember this block above?  I made this block last year.
And I made several more.  I just willy nilly pieced and put the blocks aside.
Yesterday I made this block.  Then it occurred to me, Maybe I should check and see if all my blocks are the same size.  They were not.
So I spent the next few hours unstitching three of the six blocks that I had completed.  Actually, I unstitched the one in the previous photo and you can see that I have put it back together.  As I remade the block, I measured each square and measured after each seam that I sewed.  And the block came out a perfect 12 1/2" square.  Gads, why can't I do it like the others in the Charity group at the Attic Window Quilt Shop.  They sew and never seem to have to measure or unstitch and resew.  What am I doing wrong?  One thing I know is that when I move from machine to machine (the Janome I use at home and the smaller one I carry to the shop) I need to make sure I use the same seam width. (Sometimes it is hard to remember did I move my needle over two or three stitches).  So I wrote that down on a piece of paper and pinned it to my other blocks.  Maybe that will help.  I still have these two blocks to put back together and then want to make three more blocks before I make them into a quilt.  I think the Charity group that meets first Monday at the Attic Window Quilt Shop will like it, once I finally get it done.  Does anyone else have suggestions on how I can make my piecing easier and better?  

Happenings at the Attic Window Quilt Shop
  • Charity Quilts, Monday, Jan. 2, 10-5
  • Tuesday Bee, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 10-1 
  • The Bee Hive and the Cook Book BOM, Wednesday, Jan. 4
  • Doll Bee, Thursday, Jan. 5, 10-3
  • Sampler & Bee, Saturday, Jan. 7, 9:30 - 4
ON ANOTHER NOTE: 
    Caroll,
    Caring , Sharing and Creating Smiles
    at

    1 comment:

    1. LynnJanuary 2, 2017 at 11:33 AM

      Do you have a quarter inch foot for your machines? I find this is much easier than having to remember to move the needle over. I use my #37 foot on my BERNINA for all piecing. Leave the needle in the default position (middle) and use the edge of the foot as a guide. There are also seam guides available that stick to your machine, tacky and magnetic versions. A low-tech version is to measure over 1/4" from your needle and put a stack (6-12) of post-it notes along the edge of the ruler. This will act a temporary seam guide. Masking tape works too but there is no "wall" to run the fabric against with masking tape.

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