Saturday, March 5, 2011

It's all in the details...

I started piecing the first wedges of my Kaleidoscope quilt today.  It seemed like it would be very straight forward.  Let's review, shall we?

I began with the outermost wedge pieces:

Looked easy enough.  Just 2 straight seams.  Put them right sides together and...

Wait!  What's this little piece sticking out from the bottom?

Can that be right?  And what about this dog-ear at the top?  How big should that be?

I did my best to make the intersection where the edges of the two fabrics meet happen at exactly the 1/4" seam allowance.  Because these are all bias edges, any shifting, fudging or easing is not a good idea.   Luck was on my side, because here is the outcome:
Whew!  Dodged that bullet!  On to the next seam.  Surely it must be easier than the last....

Oh no!  It appears that one piece is much longer than the other!  Put them right sides together and see what I've got.
 
This looked complicated, but I gave it a try.
I managed to get my 1/4" seam to come out exactly where the edges of the two pieces intersect.  A gentle pressing with a dry iron, and Voila!

Okay, now I'm getting the hang of this!  I finished piecing the wedge, and moved on to the corner piece of background fabric.  Just lined them up and...

Oh great!  Look at the top left..

and another one on the top right...

At least this time, the two sides were mirror images of each other.  All I had to do was center the background piece onto the wedge.  Here is what it looked like from the other side:


The alternate wedge pieces had their own little odd shape:

At last, I had the first 3 sections ready to sew together:


And this is what I have now:
I only have to do this 3 more times, and then I'll have a great big 4 patch to put together.  I think I have a good idea of how to deal with all these crazy angles to piece, but I am concerned about this:

That's just 3 of the 12 points that will eventually come together in the center.


 I'm just as curious as anyone else as to how that will turn out.  Stay tuned....




4 comments:

  1. Wow, Auntie Em!! This is quite the adventure!! Glad you are a few steps ahead of me!! Its lookin' good!! Kris

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  2. Thanks for the great photos of this joining adventure. (It is also lovely seeing your fabrics up close.) I did a practice join with some of my scraps last night just to check out the center seam. I ended up ripping it out to try again today. I am very much looking forward to your photos of how you manage your center join. You are doing GREAT so far.

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  3. I trimmed off the little extra pointy bits sticking out before joining up the final four squares so that the tip of the square is actually at a 90 degree angle. Your step by step photos are great, and everything is looking terrific!

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  4. looking good, I may have to try this block sometime!

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