Help! On point setting triangles

Jerry: I am not sure what you need to know. The points will stick out but you will trim those when you square up the top. This gives a 'floating' effect ... very nice. Just pretend the rows are normal rows, and press the seams as you usually do. If the triangles are oversize (as I suspect form your question) then you need to line up the right angle with the right angle of the adjoining block. Clear as mud?

Check out some less> I may have already created a problem and need help.

here:

chart:

Thanks for the reply.

Yes all of my blocks including the side setting triangles are the same size. All of blocks including the ones needed for the setting squares have been sewn together in my diagonal rows.

When I sewed the first two rows together I did not start and stop the seam short by 1/4" but now looks like I should.

Question #1--Should I start and stop the seam short?

Question #2--Should I trim the side setting squares before sewing my rows together?

Question #3--If I am to trim the setting squares, how do I make sure that I cut the 45 degree angle at the right place?

Jerry in North Alabama

One tip I have to pressing seams is press block by block to the left for Row 1, and then Row 2 to the right. When you come to sewing the two rows together, the seams will sit flat. It's a bit fiddly sewing but worth the effort. Continue alternating direction right through. I press each row as I go, then place them on the design wall (or floor) so check the seam directions each time. Like Pat said, trim up the setting triangles later.

-- Cheers Bronnie

Thanks Bronnie. I guess you were typing your response while I was typing my attempt to clarify my question.

I did the pressing like you described.

Jerry in North Alabama

I never stop it short. No reason to.

I only trim the little (or big, depending on how generously I cut) dog ear that would extend more than 1/4" beyond the seam allowance

To trim the dog ear, lay your ruler along the edge of your square blocks and trim along that line.

Wait to trim the excess from the triangle until the whole top is assembled. I usually let the setting triangles "float", meaning that there is a bit of setting triangle left sticking out beyond the blocks in the finished quilt. Let's say that I want 1" finished beyond the blocks -- I lay the 1.25" line of my ruler along the tips of the blocks, and cut along that line. No 45 degree to figure -- I'm just lining up with the tips of the blocks. Why allow the float? Besides it being a nice design element, it allows for a bit of, um, less than absolute perfection in my piecing. :)

I think you can just match the seams as you would if you were doing a normal setting, you just don't have a whole strip to go together. I would trim the triangles afterwards - but I do see a problem here, I presume your blocks are half an inch bigger than they need to be finished? but that't going to end up with the seam allowance being diagonal, so if you put a ruler on the finished piece and trim a quarter of an inch from the points, you'll be missing a tiny notch of fabric at each one, where the distance from point to edge of fabric is about

3/16th of an inch, not a full 1/4. It will probably work out ok if your entire project is accurate, but if it isn't, you'll have a little less give to work with. With log cabin blocks, this is easily correctable as you can just make the final strip a bit wider on the blocks you'll be using for setting. As you'll then have a bias edge on the half block, I would make sure to cut your borders with the lengthwise grain and be very careful as you put it together.

Cheers Anne

Jerry, I have a couple of questions; first, are your setting "squares" solid fabric or pieced? second, are they truly squares or have you cut triangles for the setting parts? If you have squares on the ends when you trim them you will have bias edges all along the edge of your quilt. Be very, very careful not to stretch that edge. If you are using partial blocks for the setting triangles, you are cutting off not quite half of your pieced square, which is fine, but seems to be a "waste" of piecing.

When assembl> I may have already created a problem and need help.

Hey Patti, who needs Quilt University dot com when we have all this expertise at our fingertips VBG. Your advice is excellent - think I'll print if off for myself when setting on-point.

-- Bronnie

LOL! I saw this exact quilt in an exhibit of Amish quilts from 1890 to 1930. Log cabin blocks on point, so the alternating black and red halves of the blocks would make vertical stripes. She did exactly as you're proposing, making setting triangles out of half log cabins. And the logic of this is valid: all those seams make the squares heavier than normal, so you want the setting triangles equally heavy. Just sew them all and trim off the points afterwards, IMO, lining up your ruler so you have a nice quarter-inch (or more) seam allowance away from the points of the square blocks.

That exhibit quilt completely destroyed any ideas I may have had about the accuracy and inhuman sewing skills of Amish ladies. It was the wonkiest quilt I've seen in a long time, and I just loved it. (Diagnosis of the wonkiness: the quilter used lots of different scrap fabrics, including red wool flannels and black wool suiting. And it was tied rather than quilted. Combine all that with hanging on the bias for 80 years, and imagine the bags and sags!)

Setting triangles are normally cut with the long side on the straight grain, so that you don't make yourself crazy with the finished edge of the quilt on the bias! Roberta in D

"MaleQuilter" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@c77g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

Pati, Answers to your questions:

The side setting blocks are pieced (log cabin identical to all my other blocks).

At this point, the setting blocks are still full square blocks and have not yet been cut down to triangles. (In fact, this is one of my problems (or I'm just scared) --how do determine the correct cutting line?)

Also, please explain exactly what you mean by "pop open the seam allowance.

Thanks,

Jerry in North Alabama

(blush...) Thanks, I think. Just hope that I don't get too teachery.

Pati, >

AHA...

1. Personally, since you have EQ, you could actually "design" the setting squares. If you put the log cabin block on the worktable of your EQ program you can draw a diagonal line across it. Save the block then you can print out a foundation pattern which will be exactly what you want for the setting triangles. You can actually paper foundation piece the setting triangles, or use that foundation pattern as a template for cutting your setting tris. Be sure to make a block with the diagonal in each direction. When you set them into your quilt you will have to rotate them to get the correct placement so that the diagonal line will be on the outside edge.

For the corners, make a block which is divided on both diagonals. Again, you will have to rotate it and will actually use all 4 parts, one in each corner.

The biggest problem is that while the side setting triangles look like half squares and the corners look like quarter squares, in fact they are the opposite, in order to get the straight of grain on the outside edge. Historically speaking there are many quilts in which regular blocks were used and just cut in half/quarters. If you look closely at these quilts, the edges all have the points cut off to compensate for the "missing" seam allowance.

As for trimming your blocks. As I said before, if you are trimming on the diagonal, you will have bias. Lots of bias. I would wait to trim until you are done. At that point you will be trimming, ideally, 1/4" beyond the corners of the full blocks. Think a bit. The "seam line" is the diagonal of the block. Then you add the seam allowance to that. When I cut setting triangles for an on point quilt, I usually cut them quite a bit larger than needed. That allows me to "float" my corners in from the seam if I want to. And, if there is a half inch to inch there, and for some reason my joining of the rows isn't as perfect as it should be, it isn't as noticeable when I don't have to line up that seam line exactly along the corners of the blocks. (Fudge factors are wonderful.)

As for "popping" the seam allowance. Take 4 pieces of fabric, 2 light and 2 dark. Seam a light one to the dark one. Press the seams to the dark fabric. Now sew the 2-patches together to make a 4-patch. Line up the seams, they will nest, with one going in each direction. If you are able to sew them so that the top seam allowance is pointing to the needle and the bottom seam allowance is pointing to you it will help make those seams really match and be "perfect" at the intersection. Now take that 4-patch and open it out with the seams on top. Near the middle intersection, put your finger tip on one seam allowance and start moving around the intersection in the direction that seam allowance is already pressed. Push the next, unpressed seam allowance in the same direction, which will be the same direction as the 2nd pressed seam allowance. When you get to the last seam allowance in order to press it in the same direction around the intersection, you need to loosen the stitching. Do not remove any thread, just sort of twist the seam allowances in the directions they should go and the seam allowance will open up so you can press it flat. At the intersection you will have a tiny little "4-patch" of seam allowances, and the bulk will be evenly distributed around the intersection. Makes for a much flatter block/quilt. (Which makes it much easier to quilt too. )

If you look at hand pieced quilt tops this is done almost automatically because the seam allowances are not sewn down. (Very good photos of the backs of very complex blocks are found in Linda Franz's "Quilted Diamonds 2". Pressing around intersections is very important in such small blocks with that many seams. ) Sometime I will get all this info up on my website. sigh. with photos and diagrams. In the meantime I hope you will just try it. It really does help a lot. (For you who are teachers, you will know the feeling that comes when someone exclaims "just learning that is worth the cost of the class!!!". That is a comment I have often had about this little tidbit of pressing seams around an intersection. )

Hope this helps. (And I haven't gotten tooo long winded here.)

Pati, in Phx

MaleQuilter wrote: