Monday, March 18, 2013

Double Irish Chain Baby Quilt Blocks A & B

Block A's completed and pictured on the design board:


I did decide to recut new strips and reassemble strips for rows 1 and 5. I just couldn't use them and get them to butt seams with the other strips that I had used different measurements for. I'm glad that I bought extra fabric. I was hoping to add it to my stash, but I ended up having to use almost 1/4 yard for the extra strips of pink alone.

I started to sew rows together and after the 3rd row, I pressed and set them on the cutting table and left them for the next time.

The next day I arrived, grabbed the stack and row 4 set and started sewing. After I pressed and starched, I measured and noticed... it was not measuring to an accurate number?  Sure enough, I didn't measure row 3 addition last night and it needed a bit of trimming. So, I ripped all 17 block's 4th row and started over.  The tricky part was that I had fanned the seams on the back, which pulls the threads away from the edges of the block and the strip being sewed. All turned out OK after I trimmed and pressed again, and then sewed them back on.  Does anyone actually restitch those pulled threads?  I'm hoping they are not vulnerable to falling apart.

Block B was more simple.  These were the two strip sets.  I'm still not sure what the real benefit to having pieced the first set.  Wouldn't it have worked fine to just have one strip the full length?
 Block B cut and ready to assemble.
 Block B completed.


And, here are the blocks placed on the board, ready to be sewn together!
This has been the most complicated piecing so far.  There were so many seams to butt together, various strips to keep straight in my mind, and measurements that went wrong.

However, I think this turned out perfect for a unknown gender baby at a shower, or women's shelter! This one will definitely find a home other than staying here. And, I went and picked up more of the fabric on sale because I really liked it. Even after all that went wrong, I'd love to make more of this type of quilt to donate.


4 comments:

  1. lovely!! turned out really nice.
    Even though you had a hiccup along the way with your row 4's (why do we never catch these things until after sewing all the blocks together)it all worked out. I don't know why that center bit on block b has to be pieced and not just one strip?? I don't remember anything being said in the book either.
    I love the dots on the fabric i can understand why you got more!
    One more to go now! have you got a plan/fabric for the irish chain variation quilt yet?
    once again nice work!

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    1. I did go back to Joann's this last weekend to grab some fabric on the 40% off sale. Hopefully, it will work with what ever else I can come up with since I didn't really have time to do much planning before I ran in there and picked some fabric! I think this next one will have to go total scrappy.

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  2. Beautiful. Do you feel like you have learned how to know (without the directions telling you) in which direction to press? That is one of the main things I wanted to learn from the lessons and I still struggle with that.

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    1. Learning which way to press is important. I'm not there yet. For now I always check the instructions to know which way I need to do that. I hope that it is something I will learn better as I progress through the next volume. This course had plenty of other basic stuff for me to concentrate on!

      I think it is something that gets planned when planning the block layout. QA is obviously pointing us in that direction because we are getting less direction in some of the easier steps that they are hoping we can figure out on our own.

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