This week's challenge was to build your own block. She gave us the math lesson, and then we had to create our own block. Mine turned out WONKY. I do not know which of the wrongs was the one that went...but here is what I did.
1. I made up my pattern.
2. I picked out my fabrics.
3. I thought I figured out the math:
Cut
2 - 6 7/8 in squares in floral
2 - 4 7/8 in squares in solid blue
2 - 5 1/2 inch squares in white
1 each - 5 1/2 inch squares of orange and blue flower prints.
At first I thought that I was making HST for the solid blue and white floral... but once I tried to sew that I realized that I was just cutting the fabric for the triangles to sew to my square after I finished.
4. I started the sewing process.
Once the squares (White floral and blue) are cut out, cut them diagonally into triangles.
I made a mistake and thought that I was making HST and sewed them together. Thanks to my trusty rusty sew ripper I fixed that mistake!
I then sewed them together to make this square. This turned out nicely.
The next part is when my pattern took a turn for the worse.
I needed to add the triangles and this proved to be more difficult than anticipated, I am thinking that this might be where it started to wonkify. According to my original pattern the square should end up being 8.5 inches. Mine is shy of 8.25 in some areas... and over 8.25 in others... hmmmm I am pretty sure it is my seams. But why did it come out a whole .25 short overall?
The final step was to add the floral triangles... again since it was already wonky at this point it became wonkier! So I think in the end I will have to add a border to this one to get it up to 12.5.
Very fun, I am hoping Leila over at the Skill Builder can give me some tips!
Okay I went back and measured and remeasured! I figured it out. One of my floral triangles was off. So I went ahead and recut and resewed and no more Wonkies!!! Yes WE can!
Okay I went back and measured and remeasured! I figured it out. One of my floral triangles was off. So I went ahead and recut and resewed and no more Wonkies!!! Yes WE can!
You couldn't just stick with HST?!? ;)
ReplyDeleteOk, what you made is a square in a square block and it doesn't have simple math like a HST.
If you look at your picture with the blue triangles around the center, the points are even with the edge of the center block. This is Bad because you will start sewing 1/4 inch down and automatically loose some of the blue fabric. The blue triangles need to be big enough that the side of the triangle and square overlap 1/4 inch down. I wish I could show you. It would make more sense.
Long story short...the triangles need to be bigger. One solution is to cut them way bigger and trim them down after you sew them to each side (leaving 1/4 inch seam allowance) and then there is this weird quilt math that I "think" will work.
You take the finished size of the center and divide it by 1.414 and add .875. Round up to the nearest 1/8 of and inch. Cut a square with those dimensions and cut in half on the diagonal. (you will need to cut two squares obviously)
It should work. Knock on wood. You might want to try it with some scrap fabric first.
Good luck!