Well...here are all my blocks to date. Will take a break now as Big Bernie 820 has to go to see the" doctor" and
find why she is acting up ! Drat ! It's a 200 miles total to the Dealer ! And then another trip to get her home .
That's why I have other machines ! Rrrrrr

I use one ,too. I learned to do so many moons ago before I had knee lift or such. They are handy !! Maybe as Lois said
the presser foot might need loosening up just a bit so that you can run onto the piece more easily. Keep trying...it's a good thing !

crocus999 wrote:
Yes, Terrie, I use a startie-stoppy but I think I use it in conjution with the knee lift for the presser foot. I just nudge it a bit with my knee and never have to left the presser foot. I noticed problems with the startie-stoppie when I use it with the machine that has no knee lift. I was thinking that maybe I had the pressure on the presser foot too great but I didn't fiddle with it to see if that was it.

crocus999 wrote: 'Leader', 'Startie-Stoppie', 'Thread saver' - what-ever-you-call-its... I do use one when chain stitching piecework, the main advantage, I find, is that because the threads are already meshed into a piece of fabric you do not get the 'birds nest' of threads at the back of the first one. I also lift my foot when putting in a new pair of pieces - and boy! do I wish that I had a knee bar for my presser foot. By the way if you are not cutting off the set just stitched, but going straight on with stitching the next set, I would say that that was chain stitching, lifting the presser foot or no.

Infamous, notorious and hilarious! That's our Rosemary.

Congratulations Rosemary , try not to let it go to your head

I wanted to finish the QST for last week, and although they were cut, I hadn't sewn them until today. Laura speaks abut a 'leader' and Margo calls it a ' Startie-Stoppie", but I call it trouble. I have to lift my presser foot to get the needle to go into the 'real' fabric, and even though using the startie-stoppie - it doesn't work like I see that it does for Margo or Laura.

Question? Do you use one, and does it really work? If so, what might I be doing wrong (especially on those 45 degree angles - impossible to chain stitich them, except I just reposition the new one without cutting the thread - does that count?)

Now, let's see if my signature comes up....

Beautiful blocks, Annis! I love the fussy-cut sunflowers!

Congratulations, Rosemary! I haven't gotten to the newsletter yet, but will now!

Nancy

PosyP wrote:
Or infamous and notorious.

Whoo-hoo, I'm nearly as famous as twiglet - my pinwheels have been featured in the TQS newsletter, but without my name

Previous to this I would have said that I was just notorious

Thank you for the photos, Annis, and the trick of cutting the corners off the squares if we want to make the geese slightly larger than need be. Something I intend to do after my QST trials last week. Easier to cut a bit off than add to
Looking forward to getting stuck in tomorrow.
Marianne
PS I like how you have fuzzy-cut the centres of the star block.

Square the finished blocks using a ruler with marks at the 1/4" lines. Or use a specialty ruler made for flying geese if you have one.



During assembly I measured after every addition to make sure my seams were accurate. I did do a little resewing next to the first sewing line but didn't have to do any unsewing. My finished blocks were close enough.

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Mark down the center if you haven't already and sew.



Cut and press.



Mark and sew again. Cut and press. Do not trim triangles off the corners of the squares for this step.

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That was a good lesson for week 4. Once I got the right measurement for the squares everything worked well. If you are making these exact be skimpy with your seam allowance or the flying geese blocks may be a little small. This is how I did my last set. I cut them oversized, adding 1/4" to each measurement (adding 1/8" would also work but it's easier for me to trim off the extra 1/8" than a 1/16"). So my cut sizes were 4-1/2" and 2-5/8".

I didn't like the extra fabric that got caught in the tips of the geese so I trimmed it off before sewing. Place the blocks on the corners of the larger square and measure the amount that overlaps.



For my oversized blocks I needed to trim 3/4" triangles off the tips. When adding 1/8" just trim 5/8". It is necessary to trim for the oversized blocks because some of that excess fabric may end up on the front of your finished block. Ask me how I know.



And if you are cutting exact and want to trim that excess, trim off 1/2". Place a square ruler as shown for this block size only if you don't have a triangle ruler.

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