Help, help help!! What am I doing wrong! I sewed my washed starched 1 “ stripes together and look what happened. Although they measure okay, I can only send in four out of six blocks & looked how skewed the second strip is in the first block and one of the other blocks! What can I do to straighten this out to look at pretty as all of yours? Cut the stripes before sewing them length wise?????

ajclapp wrote: Thanks, Annis. I had never thought about pressing the seam open making a difference. That explains why my practice strata came up I little too wide. Normally, I do not have a problem with my seams. Thanks for the explanation. I love TQS.

As long as that is what is on the guidelines on page 1 you should be ok.
But I think that I should admit that some of mine are coming up a thread or two under the 3 1/2" measure

Just to clarify: When I said that the idea is to have completed 3.5 x 4.5 strips, I mean that is what I will be sending out.

Scoopie wrote: Even though we are pressing the seams open, taking in the seams is a perfectly good option IMO, do one seam at a time, remember to remove the old line of stitching, re-press and re-measure to see if you have lost enough, or need to take in another seam. At least if you are taking them in you don't have the stitch marks showing. I have to admit that I am getting quite a dab hand at it with this project

Kathy, even though I trimmed the excess width off of my first set of strip sets I still had trouble when sewing them together and they ended up a little wider than they should have been. By pressing the seams open you gain a little width because there is no fold in the seam allowance so your scant seam doesn't need to be as scant. Since I didn't cut my last strips wider like Margo did I had to be careful that I didn't end up with too small a block. I ended up having to use a slightly wider seam allowance for my last seam in the center so my 2 middle strips are right on, the strips next to them are a little wide and the last strips are a little short. These are the olive ones and you really can't tell the difference. I think different widths in the strips makes the blocks more interesting. For the pink ones I used a different piecing method, not enough space to explain here, so all of my strips are really close in width. That took more time though and in the end it really doesn't matter.

Kathy, Yes, I will admit I did have problems! Evidently I was cutting my 1" strips a scant more than one 1". And, my 1/4' seam that I was sewing was a scant less then 1/4 inch! Fortunately, I had only done one 22' unit. They were too big! Cutting the outer strips wider only helps if your 4 1/2' unit is too small! Since we are pressing the seams open, taking in each seam was not an option, and there was no way I was going to rip all of it out. So, I ditched the first long unit, trimmed all of the rest of my strips, and made my seam a little bigger.

And, I will include 2 fat quarters! Thanks Rosemary and Lorna!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

Kathy,
You can do it, just look at some of the work you've done on your profile! I think the idea is to have completed 4 1/2/ x 3 1/2 inch strips. Afterall, these are reels of thread, not steel screws! The difference will add character and interest to the finished product. I've seen some 'spool quilty things' that only have 4 or 5 strips in them, so I think these will be much nicer. The ticket for me was STARCH! I averaged the cut of the strips - 1 1/2" or so, then trimmed to sew all the strips into sets of 2 together, pressed the first seam, then measured the set, folded into 1-inch segments before cutting to apply the next set of two.

I'm thinking of embroidering loose threads coming from some of the reels once all the quilting is done. Life happens, things unravel! Just don't you get unravelled over this. Have fun!

ps - this letter is a hint to those of you who may recieve some of my 'imperfect' reels. Like someone said: Don't sweat the small stuff. It's the friendship part that counts!

I did the same thing that Frances did - cut the two outside pieces at 1.25" to give me a little wiggle room. Also, I sewed my seams at a scant 1/4 inch. They came out perfect.

Kathy,
Do what Margo did and cut the two outside strips a little wider than 1 inch. Then if your seam is off, you have extra to cover it. I cut my strips so the inside strips were cut at 1 inch and the two outside strips were 1.25 inches. Then when my strips were done, I cut them at 3.5 inches and then trimmed the ends so it was 4.5 inches tall.

thanks rosemary, I'm glad to know that I'm not alone. I cut my strips 1 inch by width of a fat quarter. Don't know if that is making any difference. Guess I'll get back in there and keep working at it. You know for sure that I'm going to appreciate every single block that I get back in this exchange!

Kathy

Kathy - zip back to page 8 and have a re-read of my posts there, they should cheer you up a bit

Also provided the finished size is 3 1/2"x 4 1/2", there won't be any problems is the strips inbetween are not 1/2" wide, I'm pretty sure someone else mentioned that this was the case with hers, and I know that this is the case with some of mine. Just make sure that the end seams are 3/4" from the edge, for clearance when they are made up and you should be fine.

PS I've still got to wash my lot

Oh, I need some encouragement.

I cut my strips 1 inch wide, am sewing them together. apparently I can't sew a decent quarter inch seam- on measuring my pairs, some of them were quite a bit off! I've been ripping out and re-sewing. I guess I should have foundation pieced these. But I didn't think I would have this much trouble! Do others have this much trouble?

I've got that purple "sewing edge" seam guide on my machine, and it's aligned the same way it was for the BOM blocks which turned out good. Anyway, instead of being in my sewing room, I'm discouraged, sitting out by the computer reading my e mails instead.

Kathy

Reetzbobeetz wrote:
I've had issues with freezer paper not sticking too. That's why I started using adhesive labels for my templates. I think I may go with vellum paper with 3 columns going landscape so they will be the width of the block and I can stitch them down on both sides. That may take a little longer but then I don't have to wonder whether the sticky labels or freezer paper stayed put. And the vellum will tear away easily without removing the stitches.