June 1st Quilt Block Exchange

[Lacy Blues]

How about an address?

Oh, I picked up an acrylic 12-1/2" square ruler this morning. It was packaged with a 6" ruler as well and the two of them together was about $15.00

 

[katsdar]

How about an address?

Oh, I picked up an acrylic 12-1/2" square ruler this morning. It was packaged with a 6" ruler as well and the two of them together was about $15.00

that a good price for the 2

 

[katsdar]

How about an address?

Oh, I picked up an acrylic 12-1/2" square ruler this morning. It was packaged with a 6" ruler as well and the two of them together was about $15.00

you are ready to send your june blocks, wow, wonderful, I will pm you Marty's address just make sure you mark the outside of the package June swap, Marty doesn't open the packages until time she likes to be surprised and that way she can get them into the right bin.

 

[sonderah]

My stepdaughter recorded some strange sound one if the chicks was making last night. Sounds awfully close to a cock a doodle doo that didn't come out all the way! Lol I'm so DYING to know what sex my 2 Speckled Sussex's are!!!

 

[katsdar]

My stepdaughter recorded some strange sound one if the chicks was making last night. Sounds awfully close to a cock a doodle doo that didn't come out all the way! Lol I'm so DYING to know what sex my 2 Speckled Sussex's are!!!

I know your feeling I have some that I can't tell yet and its driving me crazy, I have a sneaky feeling they may be roos, but so want hens. They will be turning 20 weeks the end of April, so time will tell, this is when you wish time would move faster.

 

[kimmie6067]

I got my fabric!!!! Finally. I went to a Amish friend who has a fabric shop in her back yard. It was fun we pulled out all the green fabrics and finally made a decision. She has some wonderful quilting fabrics way cheaper then Joanns and other quilt shops anywhere from $6.50 to $8.50 a yard. So I must get started.

Kimmie

 

[sonderah]

I know your feeling I have some that I can't tell yet and its driving me crazy, I have a sneaky feeling they may be roos, but so want hens.  They will be turning 20 weeks the end of April, so time will tell, this is when you wish time would move faster.

Lol Mine r about 5 weeks now. These r my first chickens and I'd said I don't want a rooster. So I bought 4 red pullets, but the speckled Sussex were sooo pretty!!! So I decided i could deal if i got a rooster, and grabbed 2. I watched some you tube video on how to sex them really young ( knowing it may not be correct) According to that, one is a rooster, and one is a hen. But now that they r getting bigger, I'm not so sure, cause the supposed roo, is HALF the size if the others, and the only one not fully feathered. Lmao Who knows, guess time will tell.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Well, I'm pretty aggravated today! Got my 12.5" ruler and started squaring up my blocks only to find out that most of them are 1/8" short all the way around. I guess that what comes from cutting blocks at 3-7/8 inches and sewing a "SCANT" 1/4" seam. All that to save me 1/2" of fabric? FORGET THAT NOISE! I won't be doing that again.

So, I have 7 blocks that I think are passable. I put fabric glue on the edges where I felt it was too close and have marked the 1/4" seam line. If this is not ok, please tell me now and I will re-do all of them instead of just 9 of them. Good thing I have lots of time! I will have different fabrics though for the next bunch I put together.

A word to the wise... cut your squares larger than what is recommended.

 

[katsdar]

I'm no expert but that seems to be fine with me, and I had to learn the hard way too, and I make mine a little big too but some designs that doesn't work either when you go to cut them down so I have found out. Live and learn, but would 1/8 of an inch matter? since we are going to put strips of fabric between the blocks? or those could be outside blocks, you more experienced quilters chime in here because I really don't know

 

[CarolineNH]

I'm no expert but that seems to be fine with me, and I had to learn the hard way too, and I make mine a little big too but some designs that doesn't work either when you go to cut them down so I have found out. Live and learn, but would 1/8 of an inch matter? since we are going to put strips of fabric between the blocks? or those could be outside blocks, you more experienced quilters chime in here because I really don't know

OK, so in this situation, I have a couple of things to say:

1) For me, if I was making blocks for my own quilt, I would like 1/8" or less of difference. BUT, you're right, we'll be putting fabric strips (or alternating blocks, or alternating squares, or something) in between them. I've had some of my blocks come up 1/8" or so short from one block to another. If your scant 1/4" seam is just the littlest bit off, you're going to see a greater difference if you have a lot of seams - that's a lot of places for that seam to be off. You can try using a 1/4-inch foot, if there's one available for your machine (mine has a little edge as a fabric "stop", like this one). If you don't have a machine with fancy electronics, you can use a fridge magnet (or two) and make your own fabric "stop", or build up a 1/4" fabric stop with masking tape or similar. Sometimes you can set your needle to one side or another, depending on the foot you have, and that will allow you to achieve an accurate 1/4" against the edge of the foot itself.

2) If you do more than one or two swaps, you'll see that this can happen. You learn to accommodate the differences. Everyone is different, every machine is different, sizes can even be a tad bit off between one ruler and another! Measuring mistakes and cutting mistakes can occur as well. We're all human. I always try to use the same kind of ruler; almost all of mine are now Creative Grid although I do still have a few other brands, and I try to use the same brand across the project. It's not always possible to use the same ruler. The 24" long ruler I use to cut long strips is just not practical for 4" squares.

You can even come up with slightly different measurements due to the way you iron, or which side of the fabric you have cut or stitched, relative to the selvedge edge.

I'm cutting mine as 4" squares, sewing the half-square triangles from those, and cutting them down to 3-1/2" before sewing the block together. Doesn't mean mine will be perfect. I still haven't figured out which way all the triangles are going to be ironed to make everything fit together the easiest. Normally I iron seams toward the darker fabric, but that doesn't always end up being the easiest way to sew things together. I'll "nest" the seams when I can.