grr two quarter square triangle borders

i had a look online for a pix of what you're describing but couldnt find it, bummer. i'll keep looking tho. just makes it easier if i know what it looks like but here goes anyhow, fwiw. hope it helps.

QSTs can be done without sewing small bias edged triangles. take the finished size you want of the QST block... for argument sake lets say 6" finished in the border when all sewn together. add 1.25" to that so cut sqs 7 1/4" in the appropriate colours. if there are only two colours makes is much easier but with 4 same technique but ya just gotta watch you match them up correctly. btdt the wrong way, oops. oh well.

you know how to make HSTs? draw diagonal on the back of the lightest sq. with right sides together... sew 1/4" away down both sides of the line. press it flat, then cut on the line. press the two HSTs open as usual.

draw a diagonal line across the back of one HST crossing the seam. now lay two over one another, with the two colours NOT laying on top of one another. lay the seams together. nestle them up real good. you can feel this with your fingers. you can, if it worrys you, pin this by putting a pin straight down thru both seams exactly. check by looking it is exactly thru the seam of both sqs. then pin the sqs together, taking as small a bit of fabric up when you weave thru as you can so it pins. be sure those pins are close as you can on each side of the upright pin. then you can remove the upright pin.

with the sqs laid so the upside seam (the one you can see) is laying towards the presser foot, seems awkward but trust me it works. this is cuz the feed dogs pull the lower seam into the upside seam while the presser foot is pushing the up seam down and towards you...effectively pushing the top into the bottom. if you sew with the upside seam laying towards you, you will pull the seam apart and not have a nice clean cross seam in those QST when its sewn. now you're gonna sew again 1/4" away down both sides of the line and cut apart. sew slow and use a pointy thing to hold that seam down flat as it goes under the presser foot. Voila!! QSTs.

i do scant 1/4" seams but that is me. i cut exactly 1.25" bigger than finished size so i have no margin for error. if this is an issue for you, cut the starting sqs maybe 1 3/8" bigger to start. then trim the QST when finished to exact size plus your 1/2" seam allowance. with the size i was describing, trim to 6 1/2" sq QSTs.

once you've done a few of these it will become clear and easier. holler if that isnt clear or you need me to explain any or all of it again. i can do it differently (i hope). we all see things differently so i could be splain'n it a bit c*ck-eyed. fingers crossed in the south pacific, jeanne I'm doing a JoAnn class, Fons and Porter Framed Star, there are two

I know exactly what you mean, but I couldn't do this for this project, it's a border of triangles, so two triangles join together to make a diamond, add another and it's a trapezium, another and it's a long thin parallelogram. So instead of having them matched when you put right sides together, you get a shape that looks like a square with the triangle opposite the seam removed, I'm not sure there is a way to do that without stitching that bias, but I'm not really sure that's the issue, one of my problems is that my strip, which is about 21inches long comes out about a quarter of an inch to short, so I must be getting inperceptible inaccurracies that would usually vanish with squaring up and what not, becoming a problem.

I also looked online for a picture, but couldn't find one.

Anne

holy smokes, girl. ya lost me on that description. not to worry. those miniscule inaccuracies can sometimes be fixed by 'setting' the seam each time. press the seam flat as it comes out the the sewing machine before you open to press it. this embeds the sewing thread into the fabric rather than it taking up room in the fold of the seam. feel free if you think it will help, draw a pix of the config, scan it and post it online for us to see. if its not too much trouble that is. these mysterys fascinate me, lol. cheers autumn in the south pacific, jeanne

this is what erks me, I've done everything by the book, including setting the seams before pressing!

I'll try do that at some point, not know, the camera is downstairs, I'm upstairs! Here's another description, imagine 2 right angled triangles join them short sides together, so that the long sides are on opposite sides of the finished result and parallel, keep adding triangles to get a strip.

It's a Fons and Porter pattern, but it's not on there website! I bought it from JoAnns and it's not on there website either! I'm convinced it's the actual size of the pieces, that 11/4 inch for QST is rounded and that's fine for joining 4 in a square, but when you are joining 7 in a strip, you only have to loose a tiny amount for it to not work. The other thing is, the pattern has you cutting the triangles from a strip, rather than 4 from a square, so the width of the strip is also going to have a slight rounding in it, my 7inch QSTs from a strip are a smidgen smaller than from a square, so it adds up, I'd already noticed and was trying to a scant seam, but it wasn't enough.

Anne

ok, i drew it, just got up and brain is only on first cuppa and not had time to get even semi-coherent. i got the diamond from two tri's. added a tri each end to see where the strip comes. looks like hst's to me.oh no, hang on a sec, i added the end ones to the wrong sides, doh. ok, got the strip of tri's drawn right now. hmmm, i see the dilemma now at least. do you use yahoo msg'r? this might be easier there. where a few of us can tackle this in real time rather than waiting for the msgs each time. cuz i'm sure between you, jess and me we could figure out what the pattern is doing wrong. :) just trying to work out which side of the tri is the bias edge now. as these could be either qst or hst, i wonder why they got you cutting from a strip at all. u guess they're easier somehow for the pattern maker/designer, who knows, doesnt matter why i guess but hmmmmmm. need to drink my tea faster so it wakes me up properly. i'll log onto msg'r now as nzlstar. if you use it and are online do msg me, eh. bleary eyed in the south pacific, jeanne

Anne, one of the ways to deal with bias edges is to starch the dickens into your fabric before you cut. The starch helps to control the stretch. And you can starch more heavily than you can "size". (I make a spray starch with liquid starch and water, so you can make it as heavy as you wish. and it is a lot less expensive than the canned stuff.) If your borders are too long, try steaming them in a bit. If they are too short, look for a seam or several that you can let out a bit. Sew the new seam first. Then carefully snip the stitches on one side of the first seam. Just snip about every inch or so. Gently, from the right side pull the seam apart at a snip. that should loosen the unsnipped thread side enough to pull it out. By stitching the new seam first you won't stretch the heck out of the seam when you unstitch.

Hope this helps some, at least for future projects.

Of course you could also just use part of the triangle border, cut it and finish with solid fabric around 2 opposite corners. That might work rather well.

Pati, > I'm doing a JoAnn class, Fons and Porter Framed Star, there are two choices

Good tip about sewing the new seam first, Pati! . In message , Pati Cook writes