Alex's Holiday Lights Quilt

[Renata L.]

I have a question regarding piecing the tree trunks. To save time, I cut two strips of background fabric 2 1/8" and one tree trunk strip 1 1/4". I sewed these together with the trunk fabric in the middle to save time piecing every single trunk. After pressing, I will subcut these into 1 1/2" pieces. The video shows the seams pressed outward.

Question: will I have a problem later if I press the seams inward instead?

The reason I would like to press the seams inward is that it gives the illusion of fullness to the tree trunk. I know this sounds like a silly question but would hate to have to redo it all if it turned out to be a good question after all... :lol: Thanks!!!

[Nancy R.]

Hi Renata -

Looking at the pattern, I think you are fine pressing either direction. There are no seams that need to be matched, so that shouldn't be a problem. (Note that I'm not working on this pattern at this point, so there may be a detail I'm missing...)

Nancy

[Annis C.]

It might work. I would make a sample block first and sew the bottom strip set to the top of the tree to see how the seams fall.

[Renata L.]

Thank you, Nancy and Annis. My instinct told me it was okay and I did not see any possible problems. Annis, I like your idea of trying a sample--that way I ruin just one block, not 76 of them if it doesn't look right.

[Renata L.]

Ladies, I just made a sample, as Annis suggested. There was no problem attaching the trunk to the tree with the seams pressed inward. However, there was a HUGE problem in attaching one block to the next one below it! I now believe the seams MUST BE PRESSED OUTWARD. Otherwise, when you sew together two trees one below the next in a vertical row as we're going to do, the inward-pressed seams of the trunk are right on top of the summit of the tree where there are seams from the tree tip AND the left and right background fabrics. Way too much bulk there if the tree trunks are pressed inward!

Well that was my lesson-learned today. Good thing I asked! My instinct was sooooo OFF! :lol: The lesson: when in doubt, try it out!

[Alex A.]

I don't think it should cause a problem - great thinking!

[Renata L.]

Thanks for piping up here, Alex! Every quilt is a learning experience here... :lol:

[Nancy R.]

I guess the trunk is narrower than it looks. I thought you would have enough room to avoid that bulk, but trial is the best teacher!

Nancy

[Renata L.]

Nancy, the tree trunk when sewn between the two background fabrics turns out to be 5/8", so there is enough room to press inward, basically the two opposing seams touch when pressed inward and that's what gets sewn against the tip of the tree. I think Alex is right, you can probably do it either way, it should not matter; once I saw how thick the intersection was going to be, I switched course just to be safe since I don't have the skill level some of you do and I would feel as if I had to go over 70-plus bumps when quilting later (especially since I'm thinking of ESS'ing around the blocks...).

[Renata L.]

Since I am still putting tree trunks to trees, I thought I'd whet Nancy's appetite and show a sampling of trees and backgrounds as the are lined up by background type so I can attach the trunks to the trees without messing up on the background. Even I wonder what it is going to look like when on the design wall. Did I use too many dark trees? Will I have to make a few lighter ones and substitute? Or will the variety in the background mitigate all that and I'll be okay? Just talking to myself here out loud... :lol: :lol: :lol:

I took a picture of all my fabrics together and indeed there were too many darks but I liked them so I'm chancing it. This could be a lesson for balancing darks and mediums better as well as size of patterns... we'll see!

[Nancy R.]

Oooohhhh! I'm loving them so far. From what I can see in the pictures, the balance looks good. But a lot of it depends on how dark you want the final quilt to be. When I'm doing a scrap quilt, I feel like I get a good idea for the final color mix just by watching the colors as they go through the sewing machine. But I also like to lay out and admire my blocks periodically. I'll adjust my fabrics as I go along. Because of that, I also don't do all of my cutting at the beginning like some of my friends do. I like the freedom to change as I go along.

I'm seeing several fabrics that I have in my own stash! You must have very good taste in fabric!! :wink:

Nancy

[E.M. T.]

What Nancy said !!

[Renata L.]

Thanks!

I like your idea of cutting as you go along--what you see in the greens is what I own (although further down in the stacks there is a little more variety than what I've shown in the photo) so I figured I'd take a slice out of each of the fabrics and that's what went into the blocks. I think it was 10 different greens and 11(?) backgrounds. I did not want to go out and buy more (do you believe that? Of course I wanted to, but I decided I would be good). I am prepared to set aside a few, if I need to, and make a few more in lighter colors or with something to give more pop and I'll use the excess trees for something else (coasters, small table runner, we'll see).

[Nancy R.]

You could also used extras as a label and/or part of a pieced back. I love to do things like that!

Nancy

[Renata L.]

You could also used extras as a label and/or part of a pieced back. I love to do things like that!

Nancy

Oh yes! THANKS!!!