Long. Sewing blocks to each other

Let us say that you have finally finished all the blocks and arranged them until you're pleased. There are 80 blocks. They are arranged 8 across and ten down. Going across, they are called "rows". Going down they are called "columns". Are you with me here? Okay. You safety pin their names on. The top, left block is A-1 and across the row through A-8. The second row is B-1 through B-8. And on down. Now - here's what I believe Marti Michell suggests, and it works for the beginner, challenged or downright dippy quilter: You think sewing A-1 to A-2 etc, stitching all the rows together would be the next step. Nope! That's the hard way. Thinking of stitching A-1 to B-1, creating long columns would work? Sure, but that's the hard way too. Marti recommends making pairs, bigger pairs, and even bigger pairs. A-1 to A-2, B-1 to B-2, C-1 to C-2 etc. Then, the A-1 + A-2 pair is sewn to the B-1 + B-2 pair. Sewing "pairs" gives you an easy opportunity to do whatever pulling, pushing and easing necessary to make the blocks fit together perfectly. If, instead, you make long rows or columns, is it very likely that they will develop a mind of their own and distort. And, sewing one long row to another requires you to do lots of matching This works so much better for me. I hope you'll try it. One more thing - When picking up the pairs to be stitched together, lay one face down on top of the other and safety pin them together at the edge that is to be sewn together. Firmly. Those rascals do love to turn and spin while you are walking from the layout to the SM. Trust me. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther
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Reply to
The Laws

Reply to
Ellison

I have no idea why I was putting them together in rows or columns. It is just so easy to get off by 1/8 of an inch here and there which totals a disaster at the end. With pairing, I get to prevent a battle coming up. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

Ok, this goes in my quilting techniques notebook. What a great idea. It actually makes a lot of sense.

Regarding those spinning rascals...Lately I have been using your pin trick but I still find occasionally one of them outfoxes me!

Mardi Real e-mail address spelled out to prevent spam. mardi at mardiweb dot com. ____________________

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Reply to
M. Wetmore

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Martha in IN

Reply to
julia sidebottom

Hot dog! I don't think I've ever been a hero. Well, maybe the time I did CPR on an iguana, but that was a long time ago. I hope "pairing" makes your quilting easier. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

I did my quilt top that way just this afternoon! It makes the handling of the bulk much easier!

Laurie G.

Polly Esther wrote:

Reply to
Laurie G.

This is the Mary Ellen Hopkins' technique I've been using for years. Piecing blocks by 2's and then 4's is so much easier than making rows. If I'm sashing between the blocks, I add the sashing to the blocks before I sew them together.

Sandy > Let us say that you have finally finished all the blocks and arranged them

Reply to
SandySmth

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Hi Polly,

Thanks for a great tip. I had never thought of that and have been merrily sewing rows and columns together trying to match all the pieces. This sounds like a much better way.

Shawn

-- mslibra

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Reply to
Shawn

I do it this way too. But might try Polly's method just to see how I like it! Roberta in D

Reply to
Roberta Zollner

If I understand what you are saying, I think this is what Libby Lehman does too. Here's an excerpt from "Threadplay" (with some omissions for brevity).

  1. Stack [the squares from] each column from top to bottom. (Sheila's note: using the original poster's nominclature, this would be A1, B1, C1, etc in stack one, and then A2, B2, C2, etc. in stack two).
  2. Place the first piece from column 2 on the first piece from column one, right sides together. Stitch. Without lifting the presser foot, stich the next pair. There will be a small area of stitching between each pair. Continue until you have stiched the pieces together from column 1 and 2.
  3. Do not cut the squares apart.
  4. Open the first stitched pair. Place the first piece from column 3 on top of the first piece from column 2, right sides together (Sheila's note: A3 on top of A2, in other words). Stitch column 3 to column 2, as you joined the columns in step 2. Continue addind pieces until you've added column 3 to the chain.
  5. Continue until you've stitched all the columns together. There will be small areas of stitches between the columns.
  6. Press the seams. Stitch the rows together.

I'm new, so I need every step! ;-)

Sheila

Reply to
WhansaMi

And I was about to say this, about Mary Ellen's method. Forget the letters, just take two blocks sew them together, then the next two, then sew the two times twos together to make four, then sew the fours together, etc. Easy, you can take them off the design wall, sew them, press the seams which ever way (keep this organized so larger squares fit together properly), and then put them back up, take down the next four, and so on.

In the long run it is probably no faster than the columns method, but you never get the blocks mixed up, and you never have long, long seams to sew...until the very last one.

Cheers,

lynne >

Reply to
Lynne in Toronto

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