Thursday, January 15, 2009

A Quarter ain't a Quarter all the time...

And as a quilter I know this... a quarter inch seam is usually a scant quarter and even that isn't cast in thread.

There are lots of things that effect that scant quarter - and those are the things I wasn't taking into consideration yesterday when I sat down to sew the nine patch units for Double Delight.  My biggest mistake was not sewing and CHECKING a complete unit.  I was so happy to just be at the machine... I was just sewing, and sewing, and sewing!  Then I measured... uuugh!  Then I cut new strips... tested and sewed and measured again and then sewed a complete strip set to measure.

On the left is what I made a bunch of... on the right is the correct size...  yeah - there just isn't any way to stretch out that nearly 1/4" of missing width.

Double Delight oops 004

My modern machine has the ability to move the needle sideways - I usually have it set to the right at 3.0 to achieve a scant quarter.  That is what I used to sew all these strips... which I'll set aside to use for something else.

Double Delight oops 007

Double Delight oops 013So how'd I screw this up so nicely?  Many of the fabrics I'm using have some heft to them (both in weight or sizing) AND the thread I was using is a bit thicker (a coats & clark 100% cotton - I usually use an Aurfil for piecing)... both factors that play into your seam allowance... and if you have multiple seams that are off just a tiny bit - they add up to a big difference. 

I need to set my needle at 5.5 to the right to get my strip set to equal 3.5" 

 

I dreamed about this all night long... a lesson I won't soon forget.

3 comments:

Dawn-Marie said...

Well at least it wasn't the border.(ducking before you can hit me) LOL

Dawn-Marie

Bon said...

That's got to be so disappointing. I'm sure you can figure out something to use them in.

Lori in South Dakota said...

aurifil thread is the best!! I've been trying to use up my leftovers. Yuck! I just enjoy it so much better using the aurifil.