In between all the outings and yesterday's hot weather, I've been trying to master this week's mystery clue.
I've got some lovely coral and peach daylilies:
But I don't have lovely coral and neutral units! I worked out how to cut them, and chain-pieced them happily on my Singer 66 treadle:
I treated all those bias edges with extreme care, not pressing the units until both sides were stitched. BUT, when I came to measure the units, they were all over the place. The biggest problem seemed to be that the neutral fabric shifted slightly. The ones in this photo were mostly OK, but the ones that faced the opposite direction were a disaster. I sewed them with the neutral underneath, and nearly half of them came out badly:
In an attempt to solve that problem, I fixed up a few duds this way:
I unpicked the offending triangles and cut new ones from a strip a bit wider. I sewed them on with the same seam allowance but without attempting to line them up at either end. After this photo I trimmed them down to size. No more problems with slipping triangles! It is a little wasteful of fabric, but not as wasteful as sewing unit after unit that just don't work.
I've fixed all I could by unpicking and adding larger triangles. That gave me all I need of one type of these units. But I need to completely re-make about 15 of the other type. I'm really over this clue! I hope the next one gives me less hassle than I have been having up until now.
Linked up just in time to the week three collection at
Quiltville.
12 comments:
I feel your pain. I have been struggling with clue 2 and 3. My units are coming out just a little off, requiring sliver trimming - yuck!
If that problem piece was sewn with the neutral on the bottom, maybe adjusting the presser foot tension would help. Maybe the feed dogs are pulling the fabric too harshly. But I'm sure you already thought of that one.
I also feel your pain! I tried three different methods before I gave up and used the draw-a-diagonal-line method, drawn just slightly off the peak. It seems to work best for me.
Oh, I love your daylilies! I also feel your pain about those little not quite matched up pieces. Makes me slow down though.
Nice day lily, mine have just come out also. Pity about the triangles, think your solution is good idea though.
Lovely colour of your daylilies. My garden has become very dry and it is only the start of summer.
I haven't started yet - beginning to get nervous now! But lovely coral fabrics.
On the other hand - ahhhh summer sunshine and flowers. 7 more days before the winter solstice and summer is on the way again.
Sewing bias to bias is so tricky. Thank goodness you found a workable method and haven't given up. Still enjoying your fabrics.
Bummer!
I am having the same issues with my blocks - trying to sort something out that doesn't involve drawing diagonal lines on 100's of 2" blocks!!
I like your solution to the too short triangles. Bonnie seems to love these units but they are a huge pain to sew!
I haven't even started clue 3 and am about to print clue 4. Well done.
Post a Comment