Marking "wrong size" blocks

[Kathryn S.]

Hi all, even though I measured, cut, sewed and pressed as well as I could, my pinwheels were still a bit off, by 1/16 inch here or there. The centers matched, and before measuring, I thought they looked pretty good. After getting out the ruler and looking hard, I realized that I would need to mark where they were a little bit short...... so, after thinking for a minute, I found some return address labels on a sheet. They are about 1/2 inch by 1-1/2 inches. After measuring a block, I wrote a little note on a label and stuck it lightly on the block. I've sewed together the row of 10 blocks so far, using my new smaller seam allowance, and the border after pressing measures 40-1/2 inches plus about 1/8 inch.

The labels stick well enough to stay on through a little handling. I'll have them off in a day or so, not long enough for the adhesive to stay on the fabric of the blocks. I thought this was a pretty neat way to mark the blocks, plus it uses up some of those labels that aren't needed so much, now that I pay bills on line

Happy sewing, Kathy

[Margo C.]

Kathy, your 1/16"-1/8" difference makes it darn near perfect in my book! We are dealing with fabric here! It stretches and it can be eased if necessary. GOOD JOB!!

[Denise L.]

Kathy, your 1/16"-1/8" difference makes it darn near perfect in my book! We are dealing with fabric here! It stretches and it can be eased if necessary. GOOD JOB!!

I was thinking the same thing, holy cow - hope she doesn't look at mine too closely!

Thanks for your info Kathy! We'll strive to be more like you.

denise

[Sharon E.]

Kathy -- did the quilt police come to your house. Don't worry about it. As Margo has said many times the floater strips will help anything, but 1/16th is awesome. Darn near perfect.

Sharon

[Sharon E.]

I work with a small group of 5 other quilters. We decided to make a quilt that was geometrical and needed very accurate piecing. We all went away to cut and sew our blocks. Despite our very best efforts none of them matched, we put this down to individual machines having slightly different settings, couldn't possibly be anything to do with our cutting and measuring! Reading all the e-mails here it's nice to know that this is an international problem with so many of us not quite getting the finished blocks the right size. But hey there are no 1/4" seam police here in England so we find a way round it and make it fit. If everything turned out perfect each time there would be nothing else to learn and where would be the fun in that. Carry on ladies (& gents) everyone is individual and so is every quilt, whatever the size.

[Kathryn S.]

Kathy, your 1/16"-1/8" difference makes it darn near perfect in my book! We are dealing with fabric here! It stretches and it can be eased if necessary. GOOD JOB!!

Thanks, Margo. That 1/8" too small for each block makes the border 1-1/4 inches too short, especially if I had continued using the too-large seam allowance that got them small in the first place. This quilt is such an opportunity for me to slow down and work accurately.

The label thing is just a suggestion for anyone who is frustrated trying to keep track of all those blocks.

No quilt police allowed in my house!

Kathy

[Kathryn S.]

This reminded me of when I asked DH to cut some templates for a friend's church project. DH asked what size and I told him, 2" by 5". He asked if it was okay if they were 100th of an inch or so off because he couldn't cut them exactly 2 by 5! 100th of an inch off, give me a break!

I thought you might enjoy this chuckle!

JoAnne

[Karen M.]

This reminded me of when I asked DH to cut some templates for a friend's church project. DH asked what size and I told him, 2" by 5". He asked if it was okay if they were 100th of an inch or so off because he couldn't cut them exactly 2 by 5! 100th of an inch off, give me a break!

I thought you might enjoy this chuckle!

JoAnne

Oh my JoAnne - is your DH an engineer? My engineer hubby is just like that and we have had that conversation a time or two. He doesn't understand fabric templates at all let alone how one can "ease" in or out a tiny fraction of difference in a pattern once it is cut. Oh but I love the guy just like he is....he compliments my loosey goosey ways sometimes...I want things done well, but perfect is most times too difficult to achieve...isn't it?

[Karen M.]

Karen, how on earth did guess about him being an engineer?! Seems like they're all the same! He's retired now and making "perfect" shaker nesting boxes and furniture. I am not kidding, they are perfect to within a hundredth of an inch!

Those templates I asked him to make were to be used for cutting the ribbing for babies' nightgowns. You know just how accurately those have to be cut!

To quote the teacher whose class I attend weekly, "There's perfect and there's done!" DH likes perfect and I like done. It's worked for us for almost 36 years. "Loosey goosey" that's what I am! I love it!

If you don't know what Shaker boxes are, you can look here:

http://www.shakerworkshops.com/catal...FSEgDQodWyxRKA

I'm trying to get him to make me the wooden part of a Shaker pin cushion, I told him I'd make the pin cushion part.

JoAnne

[Karen M.]

Ladies I also have an engineer for a husband and when he is working in metal he works to a THOU(sandth) of an inch!!! He has also boasted about filing metal to half a thou 8) Could be a bit tricky to try that with fabric though :lol:

I don't let him anywhere near my sewing projects :wink: , because we are just sooo not on the same wavelength when talking about fabric, and we need to try and preserve some sanity :lol: :lol:

Rosemary

[Karen M.]

I am an engineer :shock: I like both perfect and done, but because I am only human I need to forgive myself for the blunt pionts that occures on my stars. BUT, when it comes down to bridges it needs to be perfect 8) :wink:

[Margo C.]

Good answer, Hanne-Grete!! Good answer!!

(btw...that phrase comes from an old game show called Family Feud)

[Anne B.]

This reminded me of when I asked DH to cut some templates for a friend's church project. DH asked what size and I told him, 2" by 5". He asked if it was okay if they were 100th of an inch or so off because he couldn't cut them exactly 2 by 5! 100th of an inch off, give me a break!

JoAnne

What I want to know is what he measured them with. I've never seen a ruler that has 1/100 inch lines on it!

Anne in Vancouver, Canada

[Diana U.]

Dear Anne,
My DH bought me my own caliper. It was very inexpensive (about 20 USD). I think he was tired of my borrowing his. It will measure to .0005". I don't use it when cutting or piecing but I do use it when troubleshooting accuracy problems. My first Sawtooth star wasn't lining up on the edges and I wanted to know why. Turns out I had mis-cut some of the background corner squares by 1/16" (O.625") and that rolled up to an 1/8" off for the block, which would have been 2.25" short on each side. Of course I can compensate for that but I can fix the rest of them instead. The caliper is very handy for sorting pins when someone (*#@*) gets them mixed up too. I also pull it out for verifying templates and accuracy of 1/4" seam allowances.

Here is the link to the one DH bought for me if you are interested.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47257

Diana

PS I don't think everyone should approach it this way. I have a close friend that has seams 1/4" or more off but with incredible design work. We just joke that she needs another class in remedial pinning. :lol:

[Margo C.]

Diana, you are so smart to figure out WHY your blocks weren't measuring correctly!! It's lots easier to do that with the first blocks so you don't have to go back and correct or compensate for little errors that grow exponentially bigger!

MEASURE, CUT, STITCH AND PRESS ACCURATELY!!

With that said, I also believe that everyone has their own level of perfection that they are willing to live with.

But those calipers scare me!!!! :shock: