I am planning a baby quilt to be made up of flannel snowballs -- fussy cut centers of monkeys piloting airplanes with corner triangles of orange, yellow. red and blue. I want 6 inch finished blocks -- if I was using cotton, I would cut my center square to 6.5 inches and the blocks to make the corner triangles to 2.5 inches. Since flannel ravels, how big should I cut my pieces?
TIA
Elizabeth in Spring, Texas
If you are going to use 1/2 inch seam allowances (which people sometimes do when using flannel), cut the center squares 7 inches and the smaller squares 3 inches. If you want 3/8 inch seams, cut the centers 7-3/4 inches and the corners 2-3/4 inches. It sounds like your pattern is one that the final finished size of your block isn't critical. Be consistent with your seam allowance, whatever you use; if your blocks end up 5-3/4" or 6-1/4" because the seam allowance wasn't exactly 1/2", it probably isn't a big deal.
Prewash the flannel (maybe twice) to reduce shrinkage of the finished quilt. Quilt rather than tie or tack; I think that reduces the strain on the seams, which is what causes them to pull apart. And use plenty of quilting.
Julia > I am planning a baby quilt to be made up of flannel snowballs -- fussy cut
Not meaning to interfere, but the typo might cause someone a few worries. The 7 3/4 inches should be 6 3/4 inches I think. . In message , Julia in MN writes
Thanks, Patti, for catching that. You are right. 7-3/4 inch squares would finish to 7" with 3/8" seams. The 2-3/4 corner squares would give you a slightly different effect.
Julia > Not meaning to interfere, but the typo might cause someone a few
Howdy!
Sheeze, Elizabeth, get me all excited: Snowballs in Texas in July!!!!
I've been using flannel quite a bit this year, and haven't had much problem w/ raveling. As long as it's washed and dried before I use it, I trust using it pretty much like any other cotton in my stash. Good flannel from name brand manufacturers, anyway, in my experience. YMMV
Do a test trial on your original pattern/block sizes; see how it goes.
And send any extra snowballs to Arlington, please. It's finally heating up here. ;-)
R/Sandy
P.S.
hot here too, but dry finally. I think I heard one of the Houston weatherman say we had rain every day for 44 days. The mosquitoes are now out in full force.
I have washed and ironed the flannels but won't start cutting until I finish quilting my great nephew's baby quilt -- I am on the outer borders now.
It was good to hear from you!
Yikes Sandy! Thank heavens I clicked on your PS link! Thank you so much. I've now moved the shots over to ....... to.......well not Flickr 'cause that's not free.....hmmm....photobucket
You could try here
went with photobucket - they are also free (I'm currently only using 1% of my allowance) and yahoo transferred all the photos across.
You should update your sig soon :-) so we can find your pics...
Done! Hopefully the link works and I'll update the photos in the coming week.
It works!
Your girls are cute...
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