Month Four (April) Ruffled Roses

[Jill B.]

Looks lovely Kathy

[Kathryn S.]

Thanks, Lotti and Jill. I really debated about this kit vs the original kit, vs making my own color choices. This one kept calling me and I'm glad I went with that one. I'm getting hours of practice at precision sewing, which is what I wanted out of this year's BOM. Oh, and getting pretty good at applique too.

Those swag borders are much easier, thankfully!

Kathy

[Pam D.]

Kathy, I love your version of the BOM. It sure has alot to teach us doesn't it? You must be thrilled with it!

[Kathryn S.]

Pam, I am thrilled with it! The almost endless repetition of sewing so many units, and then checking for size at each step, is giving me that immediate feedback I need to improve. And then re-inforcement when I do it right! Just finished the April swags, and they measure correctly.

I can remember an early quilt, I think it is Jewel Box, with HST and 4 patches, that I never checked for size on the units, and when I sewed it together had to ease quite a bit in at almost every seam. That was maybe 6 years ago, because I bought my Janome 6600 to do the quilting on it because it was Ginormous and heavy. Nice to think that I can make progress.

I do think TQS is helping me tremendously, It's wonderful to have a supportive guild like this.

Kathy

[Pam D.]

Kathy, this is the first quilt I've ever made where the finished size of any block was critical, so a steep learning curve for me. I know that the end result will be worth it though. Yes, TQS rocks!!!!!!!

[Norma H.]

I finished part of month four and placed a photo in Show and Tell for you to see

[Norma H.]

Norma! How very pretty!

[Norma H.]

I'm a bit behind here, but working diligently to catch up! . Up until today my quilt was right on size-wise. However.....I've just finished the first of my 4-patch side borders that were supposed to measure 3 x 45"....and they are 3 x 47". I'm thinking that will make my floater 1 1/4", which is going to look awkward. I was wondering what I should do? If I remove one four patch, my border will be less than 45". If I take all my diagonal seams in, my 4 patches won't be square. Can you suggest any options other than starting over? This is the first time I've had a problem with 'too scant' 1/4" seams!

[Margo C.]

I'm a bit behind here, but working diligently to catch up! . Up until today my quilt was right on size-wise. However.....I've just finished the first of my 4-patch side borders that were supposed to measure 3 x 45"....and they are 3 x 47". I'm thinking that will make my floater 1 1/4", which is going to look awkward. I was wondering what I should do? If I remove one four patch, my border will be less than 45". If I take all my diagonal seams in, my 4 patches won't be square. Can you suggest any options other than starting over? This is the first time I've had a problem with 'too scant' 1/4" seams!

I think that I would just try to steam "block" the borders and see if you can shrink their length a little. If you've never done something like that, you might want to watch these videos by Sharon Schamber:
part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6aplw_tVZc
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIjZqABo2NY

You should be able to make them a little shorter, and adjust your floater to the new size.

Hope that helps.

[Margo C.]

Thanks Margo. I've had a look at the videos and I'll give that a try. What would be the largest measurement you would suggest that the floaters could be without throwing out the rest of the quilt and looking unbalanced....just in case I can't eliminate all the excess?

[Norma H.]

I'm a bit behind here, but working diligently to catch up! . Up until today my quilt was right on size-wise. However.....I've just finished the first of my 4-patch side borders that were supposed to measure 3 x 45"....and they are 3 x 47". I'm thinking that will make my floater 1 1/4", which is going to look awkward. I was wondering what I should do? If I remove one four patch, my border will be less than 45". If I take all my diagonal seams in, my 4 patches won't be square. Can you suggest any options other than starting over? This is the first time I've had a problem with 'too scant' 1/4" seams!

You're problem is exactly what I experienced when making the 4-patch borders. I didn't want to cope with this problem later, so I decided to unpick the borders but not the 4-patches. I then squared the 4-patches to the correct size (and it was just a thread that should be cut off) resewed the borders, this time to the correct size. The 4-patch should measure 2 x 7/8" when finished and I measured each and everyone of them, when sewn in again. My advice after working with the baskets and the pieced swags is: you better learn how to manage the correct 1/4" seam, because it will only get worse in the next borders if you don't :roll: .
This quilt is teaching us a lot about accuracy and I must say, I'm normally very accurate, but this was a challenge to me. To my satisfaction I can say I have had no problems with the baskets or the swags, so I now consider myself educated in 1/4" seams

[Margo C.]

Thanks Margo. I've had a look at the videos and I'll give that a try. What would be the largest measurement you would suggest that the floaters could be without throwing out the rest of the quilt and looking unbalanced....just in case I can't eliminate all the excess?

After the 4-patch borders, there is another floater before the baskets are added, so you will have a little fudge room.
The basket borders should measure 9" x 51-1/2", but with all the pieces and bias edges involved, that border is even more likely to measure differently.

You could also consider removing one 4-patch and stretching your 4-patch border, which will cause the width to be less than 3", and your floaters would need to be wider. Here are Sharon's videos for stretching a block: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQkF02vpVuw

Ideally however, you would do what Norma did, and adjust the size of the finished blocks so that the strips measure correctly.

Measuring and adjusting each step of the process is how you insure that the final measurement will be close to Sue's measurement.

[Margo C.]

Thanks Margo and Norma. I'm off to do some tweaking and see if I can get this first side to a reasonable measurement. Then I'll use that info to do the other three sides more successfully. I've measured my blocks and, yes, like Norma they are only off by a thread. Oh the power of multiplication! Will trim and resew. This is the first BOM I've done on the Quilt Show and I'm really appreciating the wonderful instructions and speedy help. Thank you, thank you.

[Margo C.]

Update.....tweaking was successful and I now have a 45" side border and 50" top border! Yeah. What a relief. I trimmed the 4 patch blocks. That is where my accuracy was off. Thanks so much for the help. Now to unsew the original side and complete the bottom one. This has been great learning.

[Norma H.]

Update.....tweaking was successful and I now have a 45" side border and 50" top border! Yeah. What a relief. I trimmed the 4 patch blocks. That is where my accuracy was off. Thanks so much for the help. Now to unsew the original side and complete the bottom one. This has been great learning.

Congratulations on that . It's so nice when things work out right.