April 24, 2013

WIP Wednesday - Problems with Reversals

I spent Monday evening working on block 17 for my Golden Album Quilt, but I don't have a finished block to show you. It didn't go well.

This is supposed to be the corner unit. The straight edge along the left side looks good, but there's no way the top should look like that! I spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure out the problem, but it just didn't make sense. I was out sewing with friends, so two of them tried to help, but they couldn't see what was wrong either. Aargh!

I came home and showed it to my husband, then we looked on Jinny Beyer's site to see if maybe a template had been printed wrong in the book, but there was no mention of a problem. So I sat and looked at it for another few minutes.

The two pieces on either side of the diamond pieces are templates D and D reversed for the right hand diamond and E and E reversed for the left hand diamond. I remembered that the book said to be careful with those pieces, especially the D pieces, because they look symmetrical, but they're not. I took apart one of each of the D and E units, then put the them beside each other, switching the pieces, and VOILA!
 
They're not sewn back together yet, but at least they look like they will fit! I have three more sets of D and E units to take apart and then I can try putting it all back together again. I don't like ripping out seams, but I have discovered I really don't like staring at pieces that won't go together and not being able to see the problem. Knowing what needs to be done is a much nicer feeling.

On a happier note - a friend and I went to a new-to-me fabric store yesterday. I just love being surrounded by all that beautiful fabric. I practiced restraint and didn't buy one of everything in sight! I did pick up a few small pieces, all of which have been washed already and will be soon become hexagon flowers.
I love these batiks - and I've already cut into two of them for hexies. The tan one may also work for future Sugar Block Club blocks.
 These three were just so beautiful and I thought they'd make great flowers. Since this will be a scrappy style quilt, any colour will work, especially once they're separated by the dark blue hexagons I'm planning to use.
I don't have many whites in my stash. Actually, I think I'm down to pretty much none except for a few tiny scraps. These two serve two purposes. They will make great flowers.  I'm also cutting fabrics for a future quilt that uses 800+ HST units in lights and darks. I have no problem with all the darks, but my stack of cut squares in lights is pretty pathetic. Now I can cut a bunch out of each of these and feel like I'm making a little progress at least.

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced again, and with Let's Get Acquainted at Quiet Play.






















4 comments:

  1. I hope it comes together nicer this time! I am fascinated and continually frustrated with paper piecing. I love the batiks you picked up, and that grey swirly fabric!

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  2. Yay for solving PP problems!! Sometimes I just stare at those printed pages so long that I get to a point where level-headedness has just been tossed out the window. So I set it aside -- it really does keep you sharp!

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  3. No paper piecing here...those units are all going together with set in seams.

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  4. So glad you figured out what was wrong. It can be so frustrating! Looking good though!

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