SPN quilt, part 4
Hi! I've been away for three weeks (pics to follow), which means I haven't been working on the SPN quilt. I do have a quilting project that I take with me when I travel. All hand sewing means that after 3.5 years, I'm about 75% done with piecing the individual blocks. O_O Not sure that I'm going to be able to assemble the blocks into a quilt top in the space of an airplane seat, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it (in 2013?).
Anyway. I had finished cutting all of the pieces for the SPN quilt before I left, and I started sewing the first block this morning. This is what a pile of pieces looks like for one block:
And here's a quarter of a block, laid out in front of my sewing machine. Notice the high-quality, ergonomically-designed card table on which I work. :p The hieroglyphics on the front of the machine are all of the different stitches it can make, beyond a straight line. There's also my scribbled calculations and block sketches to the left, and the obligatory tomato-shaped pincushion to the right.
You might remember that there are a lot of little triangles in the Rocky Road to Kansas block. (Or you might not remember, but trust me, there are.) Stitching on the diagonal, or the bias, tends to stretch the fabric in a way that stitching horizontally or vertically does not. So when sewing triangles, often it's best to cut the fabric in larger squares and then draw a diagonal line down the middle and stitch a quarter of an inch on either side of it (the standard seam allowance). Then you cut down that diagonal line and have two squares composed of two triangles of different fabric, with minimal distortion. It's a good idea to press open all of these squares so the seams lay flat, but I'm too lazy to get out the iron, so I press them open with my fingers. The seam should usually sit behind the darker fabric so it doesn't show through the quilt top. Here's the three stages I just mentioned:
Now, it's time to sew these squares to each other and to the other triangles that are part of the block:
See how the row of triangles across the bottom will line up with the pink triangle, and after there's another row down the left side, they'll all line up with the big triangle? I measured correctly!
Except where I didn't:
See that little square in the lower left hand corner? The one that's supposed to line up with the triangles next to it?? Oops. I fell victim to one of the classic blunders, which has nothing to do with a land war in Asia, but involves that quarter-inch seam allowance. Each of the triangle-square units will end up being an inch on a side. This means you have to add enough to the sides when cutting so that after sewing the seams, you have an inch square. I cut the little squares as an inch on a side to start with, not the inch-and-a-half that I should have. *sigh* Thankfully, I have lots of the background fabric left over, so it won't be a problem, but it will delay things a bit.
Also, my best friend is having a baby next month, so I suddenly have other quilting priorities. :D But I will return to this soon, never fear!