Blue On Blue…Stitching It Together

Ready, Set….GO!  I started sewing the laid out Blue On Blue blocks together and it was going great…for a while anyway.

I knew I needed to orient the blocks the correct way so the seams would nest together. That was no problem, I flipped them all over so I could see the seams and every other row would be oriented either up or down.  I labeled the rows with pins very simply…one pin in the first block of row one, two pins in the second block of row one…etc. until about half of row one and two were stitched together then I moved on to row 3 and row 4 doing the same thing.





The piecing was coming along fine until I looked at the finished section.  The plan was to look like this.
 
The partial pieced center that I had just pieced looked like the photo below.  Can you spot the difference?

Well, if you don’t see the mistake on my pieced rows look at this diagram and notice how the corners are like an X instead of a box.  This diagram is one I considered as a plan for this quilt but didn’t like the way the lattice looking thin strips looked in the corners so chose the design above to use instead.

How did that happen as I had the blocks all laid out upside down to look like they did when they were right side up?  Not sure but my first theory is that I laid the first two blocks together and stitched them together on the opposite side and I thought I was being so methodical with how I picked them up to take them into the sewing room to stitch.  Of course I wanted to be consistent so I wouldn’t make any mistakes and kept up the same technique with all the rest of the portion I happily stitched together.  In actuality the problem was I was picking up the blocks back side up and when I was stitching them together I flipped them over to lay them right side up with the rest of the blocks already stitched.  Going from back side to front side they needed to be flipped to line up correctly ... alas the problem.

PS
(Just looked at the part I stitched again...the first pairs were put together with the backsides up then I would flip them over to the right sides to put them in rows.  Since I had marked them with pins I knew which was the first, second, etc. I just lined them up accordingly.  So the blocks would be put together with the wrong vertical sides together.  If I would have kept sewing them together with the wrong side up I would have been fine.  Confusing....right?)

In the afternoon when I was going to join more blocks together I was standing admiring my work from the day before and realized they just didn’t look right.  I tried to convince myself it was OK and would leave it that way but after looking at the diagram I had made in that configuration I just didn’t like it, especially the way it looked with the border blocks.

What to do, what to do?  I hate ripping and didn’t want to rip that many blocks apart so decided to take the outside row from the right side of the quilt and move them to the left side of the quilt and added those blocks to get the design to be “correct”.  I again had to look them over and make sure there were no identical blocks too close together and moved a few around but I am never sure I have them all separated as I keep seeing blocks that need to be moved but am satisfied it is good enough now.

I stitched on the new blocks then had a couple of phone calls and friends stop in this afternoon so that is where it sits for now.  I am or was trying to stitch the blocks into 4 chunks that will be joined after they “chunks” are stitched rather than long rows as I don’t want to sew that many long rows together.  This top section will be a little larger than I had originally planned but it will be fine now that it looks like it is supposed to.

Still like the plan and turning the blocks seam side up on the floor was a good idea a friend suggested.  She made the same quilt and had problems with the seams and getting them to “nest”.  I also still like the idea of marking rows with pins but will definitely be more careful with how I pick up the blocks and may put one pin in the seams that are to be stitched  to remember which side to stitch from now on.  I am carrying several sets of blocks from my living room to the sewing room and back after they are pressed another idea that is working.

Well…maybe I will have more progress to show you later.
Lynn

Back to the Split 9 Patch

Last fall I made many 6" split 9 patch blocks from my stash fabric, some of it I have had since the 1980s. You can read about making them here and here. I got got busy helping with harvest and then took the Scrapaholic class and put the blocks aside for a while. Today I got them out and laid them on my living room floor. What to do, make more or just finish it? I decided I didn't want to make any more of the blocks so now am stitching the 63 blocks together in a 7 block by 9 block formation.

I did have a problem though....look at the two blocks below. The design I chose has the blocks coming together like this. See the problem?

When I made the blocks I pressed the half square triangles open then pressed the block seams the way I thought they should go since at that time I didn't know how I was going to put them together. The problem now is that I have sets of seams that will not nest together like is the optimum way of piecing.

I sure didn't want to try seaming them and having a lump where every seam is as they tend to get pushed along by the presser foot and then the intersections don't meet. I sure wasn't going to rip every block and re-press them either so decided to go ahead and piece them together the best I could.

I did come up with a solution that seems to be working for me though. First I line up the two blocks to be stitched together. Where the two seems meet and go the same direction I flip the top one back and nestle the seams together as if they were pressed in opposite directions. See example below.

I next pined the bottom seam and the top block together as if the seams were pressed in opposite directions. I let the top seam stay un-pinned.

This is what it looks like after it is pinned - notice the top seam is not pinned to anything.

Here is one set of blocks pinned together ready for stitching.

The next step is stitching. I stitched the seams together like I normally do and when I came to the un-pinned flapping seam allowance I just held it down with my stilletto and stitched over it the way it had been pressed. I am not sure why this is working but I have not had any problem with the seams creeping and sliding apart as you can see from this closeup photo of some of the seams. I am wondering if it is working because the pin is holding the two blocks together and there is not a huge lump caused by pinning all the layers together like I normally do.

The seams do press down just fine after stitching too. I just know I am so grateful it is working! If you ever get in a jam like this sometime give this a try and see if it works for you.

I have had a wonderful day of sewing without any interruptions today. John had to be gone all day to a meeting so I took advantage of the quiet and big block of time to sew. I didn't have to have the TV turned on blasting a news show or cowboy movie and I didn't have to cook. (During the winter John spends a lot of time in the office/sewing room catching up on paper work and flips on the TV in the room.) I like to listen to audio books or listen to the quiet as I sew. We are still trying to work out a compromise when we are both working.

When we lived in the house we moved from 5 years ago we shared an office and sewing room - no problem - so we decided to do the same here. The difference is this....at the old house John would leave to do his farming thing over here where his parents lived and would come home at noon and then again in the evening. Now that we live here on the "home place" he is always here and pops in and out of the house all the time. I am still trying to get used to that as I was used to blocks of time with no one coming and going before. This isn't a huge problem but days when I have no interruptions like today are like a mini retreat.

Until Later,
Lynn