Friday, 19 July 2013

This gave me more than a little problem.

I went to cut the blocks down to stitch them together and they didn't fit! The paper original was perfectly square, the red flowers were evenly spaced so they would create the circle of them, they were each the same distance from the corner. I traced each one through from the master paper individually onto freezer paper. I then ironed each piece of freezer paper onto the back of each piece of backround fabric (which each were marked on cutting which was the top of the grain), I then traced the design onto the background fabric (the fabric could not move because the design was ironed to it).

So I have no idea how it happened, but when I stacked the blocks with the basket/vases on top of each other the flowers and leaves did not line up, seriously did not line up! How? The quilt pixies must have been making malicious visits to my studio at night. If I made the flowers align in the way they are supposed to then the vases were way off..... This has been gnawing away at me for over a week and finally at 2am (it's very hot here and sleep is difficult) an answer came to me. I found the diagonal line from each corner through the vase and through the middle of the middle pink petal in the small flowers. I then aligned the base of each vase and the diagonal line with the master copy and traced the border outline onto each block with disappearing blue pen.

I stitched them together, cut the seams to 1/4" and held my breath......

Phew!

I have a plan to stitch this in the day times and the hand applique in the evenings....
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8 comments:

  1. SueFriday, 19 July 2013 at 11:08:00 BST

    Phew indeed. How fantastic those light bulb moments work out.
    It's looking fabulous.

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  2. KarenFriday, 19 July 2013 at 12:15:00 BST

    I am trying to understand. Did you have to restitch the blocks or had you not trimmed them yet to size? It would have been so much work to have to make new blocks.

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  3. Fun, Factual, Weird, and BreathtakingFriday, 19 July 2013 at 15:50:00 BST

    Whatever you did seems to have fixed the problem, and it now looks wonderful! Beautiful blocks!

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  4. PatriciaFriday, 19 July 2013 at 16:42:00 BST

    Did you know that freezer paper shrinks in one direction only when it is ironed? I learned that from a Sharon Shchamber video. It should be ironed before it is trimmed to size. Hope this info helps in the future.

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  5. Featheronawire Sally BramaldFriday, 19 July 2013 at 18:00:00 BST

    Thanks Patricia, I do know that and preshrunk it on the ironing board first. I still stick with the pixie theory, lols.
    Karen the backing fabric for the blocks was cut out roughly. The finished sides should measure 22" and they were cut anything between 23½" and 25". When I aligned the vases the flowers went way out both vertically and horizontally. The diagonal line is a fudge but it really doesn't show and it works so I am grateful.
    Thanks Daphne and Sue!

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  6. Plum CoxSaturday, 20 July 2013 at 21:00:00 BST

    I'm glad that you were able to fix it - they look amazing all together like that!

    Thanks for sharing the info about FP only shrinking in one direction, Patricia. I had no idea! Something else to think about when using it to stabilize blocks.

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  7. MayleenSunday, 21 July 2013 at 10:12:00 BST

    The quilting pixies make regular visits to my quilting room too OR perhaps they live there! Your quilt looks great now though! Have you decided how you'll quilt it?

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  8. Jane in CumbriaFriday, 26 July 2013 at 07:12:00 BST

    It looks as if you have beaten the quilt pixies! What a wonderful impact these blocks make together!

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