Play It Again, Ma'am

Part 7

For Part 7 I had to cut a lot of blue and raspberry Half Square Triangles. Then I had to sew half ot them together into squares, just like I did for Part 3 and Part 4 and Part 5. 

Oooohkaaaay. I can do that. But first I have to go to the fabric store and buy more raspberry fabric. I didn't get enough initially. And I didn't get enough different raspberry fabrics. I think this quilt will look better with more variety. That's one reason I don't make all of the pieces in a part (or clue) the first time through. If I end up getting more fabric later, I want to be able to distribute it evenly throughout the different parts. If I just plowed ahead and sewed all of the parts in each clue, I might run out of raspberry in Part 5 and the find out the shop where I bought it is now out, and I would get something different and then clue 7 would have only the new raspberry, and clues 1, 2, and 5 would not have any of the new raspberry, and it might not look good. It's possible it would still look good, but I don't want to take any chances.

The reasons I don't buy all the fabric in the first place so I can avoid running out are:

1) I am always hoping I will find another fabric that I love before I am too far along
2) The instructions don't usually specify how much is needed for each color

I might run out anyway because I made a mistake and wasted some fabric, or because the instructions were wrong, or  . . . . It happens.

These are some of the things that makes a mystery quilt interesting.

So, I was talking about making squares. After I made lots of squares, I had to take some of the squares and make them into pinwheels. 😾 I really don't like pinwheels. They are so hard. I can never get the points to meet in the center. There is always so much bulk in the center. Ugh.

I followed Bonnie Hunter's directions very carefully. I measured whenever she said to. Bonnie says to keep the line on the ruler up on the fabric, and I did. Bonnie says to allow for the fold in your measurement, and I did. Bonnie says to trim slivers using the Simple Folded Corners Ruler after you sew the squares, and I did.

And you know what? It worked. I am VERY pleased with how nicely my pinwheels turned out. They are flat, and the correct size, and the points meet in the center. Whooppeee! These are my best pinwheels ever.

On Ringo Lake, Part Six - Taking the Plunge

Part 6 looked like it was going to be pretty easy, but it called for salmon fabric, and I was down to one small piece and one even smaller piece, so I knew I would be needing more. (It may be called "coral" or "melon" where you live, but here in Alaska the name of this color is SALMON.)

(Image credit: Leela Cyd,on thekitchn.com)

The roads were very icy and I only had it in me to go to one fabric store. I could only find one salmon fabric that I liked there, so I bought it and went home to sew, with plans to get more fabric soon. 

The assignment for Part 6 was to cut orange triangles and sew them onto the brown and aqua triangles from Week 4 to make squares. Bonnie gives us two cutting methods. The "regular" method is to cut squares, and then cut them in half diagonally. The Essential Triangle Tool Method has you cutting a strip and then using the ETT to cut triangles from your strip. You end up with triangles with one dog ear missing (which is not a problem). You have to be careful because the cutting dimensions for the two methods are different. 

I decided to use the regular method because it seemed easier. I had used the ETT Method last year and I wanted to compare. (Maybe it's not realistic to try to compare methods a year apart, but . . . whatever.) 

This was going to be such an easy week! One piece to cut, and one seam to sew.The cutting seemed to go fast, though I quickly used up all my fabric.

The sewing - not so fast. I had a fair number of do-overs. I had hoped that I could just whip these out without pinning, but that was not to be. I found that there was quite a thick fabric bump in the middle of the new seam where two previous seams came together. It tended to push my presser foot to one side, so I had to be really careful. 

Another problem I had was at the beginning and end of each seam. The thin points of the triangles tended to slip one way or another and sometimes the seams would be too narrow and other times too wide at the ends. It later occurred to me that trimming off the dog-ears on the leading edge of each piece before sewing the Week 6 seam might help it feed into the machine more smoothly.

After pressing the squares open I had two annoying dog-ears on each piece. I used the Simple Folded Corners ruler to trim off the dog-ears while also checking to make sure each piece was square.  I was pleased that my pieces, for the most part, turned out to be very nice and square and the proper size. I think all the extra effort during Week 4 helped to give me good results here. The SFC ruler made it very easy to check squareness and also to check that the Week 6 seam was centered.

This week turned out to be quite a busy week for mystery quilters. Bonnie Hunter always has surprises for us. I like surprises! Read about it in Parts 7, 8 and 9.

Lessons Learned:

• I like the "regular method" better for making right triangles. I found that all the flipping around you have to do with the ETT tends to make you drift away from a nice 90° angle. I probably wasn't being careful enough.
• I learned from Bonnie that you don't have to (and perhaps should not) make the point of the aqua square touch the Part 6 seam.

On Ringo Lake, Part Five - Keeping My Feet Wet

I managed to do hardly any quilting this weekend. Just enough to keep my feet wet. It was another week for flying geese in the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt. Lots and lots of them. (Here's a link to On Ringo Lake, Week Five.) 

I just started cutting without really thinking. Just mindlessly following the directions as to cutting size. Forgetting that the Simple Folded Corners Ruler had alternate directions. Forgetting that "folded corners = flying geese". Not remembering until I had made a bunch of unacceptable flying geese.

I had used the SFC Oversized Method for week three, which wasn't exactly flying geese, so it took a while for the little light bulb to go on. You have to think about using the Oversized Method BEFORE you start cutting.

So here are some pieces that turned out okay:

"Honk, Honk!" they said

I am sure I will be able to make quite a few more before Friday. 

These large squares will be cut diagonally to make large triangles for the oversized Method.

Is it just my imagination, or does this year's mystery quilt have a lot more pieces than previous Bonnie Hunter mysteries? 

The rest of the story, since Vireya asked:

This is where it was stashed. Bad idea!

It just doesn't want to lie flat any more.

I tried ironing the mat on the lowest setting (before the photo above was taken). It helped somewhat. I need to keep working on it. The worst that can happen is I can ruin the mat, right? 😉 

Lessons Learned:

• Before cutting all the fabric, make a few samples. Or, review all prior instructions carefully. 

On Ringo Lake, Part Three - In Over My Head

I did not quite finish the many pieces mandated for Week Two. I spent way too much time ripping out and re-doing. I had to re-sew 40 to 50% of my pieces because 1) I am a perfectionist, and 2) the pieces were slipping too much when I sewed them.  I tried pinning. It didn't help much. I tried using more pins. That only helped marginally.  I tried pinning more "strategically." I tried adjusting the presser foot. I tried sewing faster and sewing slower.  I don't know why this was so hard for me. The pieces were fairly small, and I think that magnified any discrepancies. Whatever the problem, it was very frustrating.

I told myself I would try another method when I finished using all the pieces I had already cut. I know I didn't have to do that. I could have just stopped using the already-cut pieces. I could have started to cut new pieces using a different method before I had used up all the old pieces. But I did not want to throw out perfectly usable pieces, so I just kept on keeping on.

When I finished up the pieces I had cut in advance, I switched to the Oversized Method. This method is described in the instructions that come with the Simple Folded Corners Ruler.  

This is what the Oversized Method yields, before trimming. I have drawn a blue box to show the trim lines. Notice how forgiving this method is.

Up to this point I had resisted the this method because I thought there would be a lot of wasted fabric. Once I started using the Oversized Method, and I began to understand it, it became clear that this method didn't waste any more fabric than the No Trim/Exact Size Method, which is the other method described in the instructions for the SFC Ruler. (If you really care about not wasting fabric, Bonnie Hunter also describes a no-waste method, using the Essential Triangle Tool, in the instructions for Week Two.)

I think I have found something that really works for me! Not only does the Oversizde Method seem to minimize ripping out seams and re-doing, I am finding that I can use it successfully WITHOUT ANY PINNING. And, as a bonus, it is not necessary to cut the corner pieces with extreme precision because you will be trimming them later. (You should still be fairly careful, but you don't have to be extraordinarily careful.) So I am getting my pieces done much faster.

That's a really good thing because Week Three's pieces also have folded corners, and there are even more pieces this week than last week. Here is your link to Week Three: On Ringo Lake, Part Three

Some of my finished pieces. How will they fit together?

I am also working very carefully with these pieces because I want to make sure I pay attention to the directionality. I am making twelve at a time so I can keep track of things.

Despite the method breakthrough I am still way behind on my Week Three pieces because I spent a lot of time on Friday visiting fabric shops. I needed more melon and neutral fabrics. I did well. I got more of one of the neutral fabrics I had bought as an experiment, and I got several new fabrics which either recently arrived or which I had previously overlooked. Whatever, I am happy! Pretty new fabrics!

I love this one so much I don't know if I can bring myself to cut it

Lessons Learned:

• There may be more than one method to cut and sew a particular piece such as the Flying Geese
• If one method isn't working well, or is a lot of work, keep trying other methods. I tried a total of four methods for Flying Geese.
•  When you have a lot of interruptions, it is helpful to break complicated work down into bite-size pieces.

On Ringo Lake, Part Two - Knee Deep

Flying geese. 😓

I've always had trouble with them. And this week I have to make A LOT of them. I will get through this.  I LOVE Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilts, and I learn so much while working on them. To see what I'm talking about you can follow this link to this year's mystery: On Ringo Lake

This week Bonnie has described three different ways to make the flying geese pieces. I am going to try the  method using the Simple Folded Corners Ruler from Antler Quilt Design. (There's an interesting story here. This ruler was apparently designed by a young man who started a quilting business when he was 14!)

With other methods I have had problems keeping the flying geese "square." (OK, they are really rectangular, not square, but it's easier to talk about them by calling them square. What I mean is that you have four 90-degrees angles on the finished piece.) Bonnie noted that the lines on the SFC ruler are a double-check that her squares are cut the right size and they are square on top of the rectangle. I didn't know what she meant until I started working with the SFC ruler. After A while I came to a piece that I had cut about 1/8" too short. I realized it immediately with the SFC ruler and I avoided a huge problem later on down the line. I also began to see how the ruler helps you to keep your cutting "square" and keep the corner angle just right.

(I deleted two photos of the SFC ruler with pieces of fabric because I didn't want to give away piece sizes.)
 

With other methods, I had many instances of misalignment in my flying geese corner pieces and it is not a good thing. In the past I have ended up with pieces where the corner triangle just doesn't square up with the rectangle. I am still having a problem, but at least I know my pieces are cut correctly.

My problem:

Here is my problem, and I would welcome any suggestions. When I sew the corner triangles onto the rectangles the triangle piece tends to slip and I end up with a less than ideal seam. I would welcome any suggestions on how to address this.

This is what the bottom looks like after the top triangle piece has slipped

Added a couple of hours later:  I should have mentioned that I tried pinning. It didn't seem to help. I have a special 1/4" quilting foot for my Janome and it has a metal piece that sticks out, so you can't sew up close to the pin. You have take the pin out at least 1/2" in front of the needle. This means that on small pieces like this there is nothing to hold onto when the pieces want to slide apart.

Ta da! Some of my finished flying geese.