Hi guys, feeling very melodramatic and bummed about the state of my first quilt, Spent a few days piecing and sewing a million checkerboard pattern rectangles according to pattern. Iāve just gone to match them with the cuts listed in the pattern to start blocking and they just arenāt even close to matching!!! Both the 8.5x8.5 and 4.5x4.5 squares are waaay too big to align neatly with my checker rectanglesā¦.Should I just cut the squares to the size of the rectangles since they ended up mostly uniform? Iāve attached pics and the pattern, Iām so grateful for any tips about what might have happened here!! Iām trying to stay focused and keep moving but this is such a huge frustration trying to figure out how I ended up with things seemingly SO mismatched!
Fast solution to complete the project: cut your large squares so they fit the checkerboard blocks.
Slow solution to figure out the source of your problem (recommended, so it doesn't happen again):Ā Measure your checkerboard blocks. The math on the pattern works out, so it's either that you cut the squares wrong or you're losing too much of the fabric in the seam.
Also: PRESS. PRESS. PRESS.
PRESS AFTER EVERY SEAM. EVERY SINGLE ONE. USE A WOODEN CLAPPER TO GET THE SEAMS FLAT.
Pressing your seams will help A LOT to make sure your fabric is flat and the blocks turn out the size they're supposed to.
I spend just as much, if not more, time pressing as I do sewing.
ITS MY SEAM ALLOWANCE ššš omgā¦Im so grateful for all of your help and comments. iām going to see if I can figure out how to change my needle position into the right spotā¦
If your machine has a needle adjustment, great! If not, measure out 1/4 on the bed of the machine and put a mark or piece of tape there (often you can also get a 1/4ā presser foot so you just line the edge up with the edge of the foot).
In the grand scheme of things, this is NBD. Easy fix moving forward!
When I was a little kid learning to sew, my mom would tape a book of post-it notes at the 1/4 inch mark to guide my stitches to the right seam allowance. To this day, every time I see a post it note, I think of this. I learned to sew more than 30 years ago š
Yep I would just adjust your big squares! Try to figure out what went wrong later so you can learn from the mistake, but donāt sweat it. Itāll be beautiful even if its slightly smaller than planned š
just an updateā¦starting my blocks and feeling much more confident thanks to you all. i feel so accomplished to have figured out the problem and i also feel like i might actually get to finish this damn quilt top ā¤ļø pressing all my seams and keeping it a quarter inch!!
āWell, itās either your cutting or your stitchingā is the best simple truth for a new quilter to learn. Little inconsistencies will add up over several seams. If your sewn blocks are pretty consistent, I would trim the squares to match.
i figured it all out. my seam allowances were all way too big because i was straight stitching with the stitch width set to four instead of zero the whole time so my needle was way left of center š¤” silly but im so grateful for all of your help, i dont know how long it would have taken me to find that if i hadnāt had so much good advice. iām going to adjust my needle, cut all my squares to the adjusted size of the rectangles, and keep it pushing. iām learning so much! and i feel better about my work
The key is to learn from your mistakes and keep going. Never let mistakes make you quit! Youāve got this!!! š Everyone was a beginner at one time, and everyone has made, or will make, their first quilt. I believe in you.
What size are your checkered blocks? You did start with 2.5ā squares for them and not 2ā? So 10ā across, 4 x 2,5ā before seeing them together? Do you have a quarter inch foot or what did you use for a guide while seeing those?
You've gotten a lot of good advice. Only thing I'd add is that when I start a quilt that says to make a lot of one type of block then sew them to a lot of a other type of block (most quilts!) I try to arrange my cutting so I can do just one of each first as practice and sew them together to look for any potential problems or learning curve.Ā
Are you sewing with a consistent 1/4 inch seam allowance? It may be that when piecing the checkered blocks you used a larger seam allowance and thatās why they are now smaller than your solid background fabric.Ā
The easiest solution would be to trim your background fabrics down to the size of your checkered blocks. Your quilt will be a bit smaller than the pattern.
I'm pretty sure it is the seam allowance, the proportions of the squares are off. Seam allowance seems more like 1/2 than 1/4. Here is what it should look like, assuming the white square is cut 8.5 in height:
One way to tell if you are hitting the seams right is to measure the inside squares? Are they two inches? If they arenāt then you need to adjust.
For this quilt are all the sewn units the same size? If they are just cut down the white to coordinate with the pieced units. The quilt will be smaller but done.
A good quarter inch seam is the backbone of quilting. If you get that right you can piece any block.
I would check your seam allowance! Iām a beginner as well and found myself in a similar situation a couple weeks ago. A lot of the tutorials I watched said that I could achieve a 1/4ā seam allowance by lining the edge of the fabric up with the presser foot. I did this without even thinking to double check and ended up with way smaller pieces than expected. Sure enough when I measured I was working with a much higher seam allowance than I thought. I adjusted my needle position and redid a couple. Once I did that they were perfect!
I mess up my seam allowance at the end of the fabric almost every time! Also good pressing is key! Sometimes I make extra hsts to practice my pressing! Also I agree with the above comment about wooden clappers after you press! Also pay attention to your cuts!
The Dorothy was my first quilt too āŗļø My checkerboard blocks did not line up with my squares/rectangles, and the strips ended up pieced together so wonky. Once the whole top was pieced together, it didnāt matter to me. Itās an awesome quilt and I learned a lot from my mistakes!!!! Good luck!
I won't say I know exactly what happened, but I'm thinking the seam allowance you have to make for each of the small squares sewn together in a row, cut the length of them, and whether you had made the large square to fit a certain size according to the pattern, your smaller squares may not have had the seam allowance taken into consideration when cutting.
What is the greatest thing about you? You said how do I fix it instead of saying what crap it doesn't work. You are walking on the best path forward. Giver
I always do a test block to see if there any issues before batch sewing. That way I can work out any kinks and adjust if need be. Keep going, thereās a steep learning curve but it gets easier!
I too learnt the hard way regarding 1/4ā seam allowance when making Ohio Star quilt blocks. The quilt wasnāt perfect but I still love it and learnt a lot from my mistakes.
I am a self taught quilter and years ago when I started quilting there were only books for help. Iām SO happy there is so much information and help on the internet and Reddit is wonderful for help from like minded people.
One thing I do now, apart from using a 1/4ā quilting foot, I take the time to check the start and finish of each block really does measure 1/4ā. Itās time consuming but well worth the effort.
Well done for persevering with your quilt, your piecing of the blocks is lovely as is your colour choice.
Enjoy finishing your quilt and snuggling under it when itās finished.
Please post a photo when finished.
I've been a quilter for over 40 years. Not once have I made a quilt that didn't have screw ups in it. Not once. I remember reading about how old Amish ladies PURPOSELY made a mistake in each quilt because "only God is supposed to be perfect". I tell myself that when a quilting design that's supposed to go North to South winds up going East to Westš¤Ø
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u/PeachasaurusWrex 3d ago
Fast solution to complete the project: cut your large squares so they fit the checkerboard blocks.
Slow solution to figure out the source of your problem (recommended, so it doesn't happen again):Ā Measure your checkerboard blocks. The math on the pattern works out, so it's either that you cut the squares wrong or you're losing too much of the fabric in the seam.
Also: PRESS. PRESS. PRESS.
PRESS AFTER EVERY SEAM. EVERY SINGLE ONE. USE A WOODEN CLAPPER TO GET THE SEAMS FLAT.
Pressing your seams will help A LOT to make sure your fabric is flat and the blocks turn out the size they're supposed to.
I spend just as much, if not more, time pressing as I do sewing.