On Saturday I packed up the sewing machine and headed down the road about a mile to my neighbor Judy's house for a little sewing time. We both signed up for the 2 bucks a block at our local quilt shop, Back Door Quilts. Since Judy is fairly new to quilting, we will be doing these blocks together.
This fidgety little block is not beginner friendly. Normally I would suggest a new quilters first few blocks be a little larger, at least 12 inches. It gives you a little more wiggle room for mistakes. But we both loved the quilt, and she chose to jump in with both feet. Way to go Judy!
The pattern uses Thangles to make the half square triangles. I personally don't like Thangles, but as we all know cutting and sewing triangles can be tricky for new quilters. For now, she can focus on accurate cutting, pressing and maintaining a 1/4 inch seam. Even with 30+ yrs of quilting under my belt these things can give me trouble from time to time.
In the image below I've blurred out the size of the Thangles and the fabric measurements just in case there's a copyright. I'm sharing this image because I was disappointed in the pattern. It took a little head scratching to figure out which fabric to use for color one and two.
Thankfully I had a picture of the sample quilt on my phone.
Another disappointment...no pressing directions. This could cause a new quilter some stress and unnecessary problems. But, it gave me an opportunity to teach Judy a couple simple rules about pressing directions.
Rule 1, press to the dark fabric.
Rule 2, press to the piece with no seams or fewer seams.
And of course, I also gave her the option to press all seams open. We both opted to use rules one and two.
For my blocks I chose to pop open and spin the seams at the intersections, she chose to leave them and press them all in one direction.
The blocks turned out super cute and we had a good amount of scrap fabric. I'm always grateful when a quilt kit is made with room for errors. We didn't need it with this block, but we'll keep it handy just in case we need it for future blocks.
If you've never used or heard of Thangles, here's a video from the Thangles YouTube Channel. Just click on the image below to watch.
I really like the fabrics being used in the blocks. I used to do Buck A Block years ago but got away from them. The closest participating shop is Caroline's and is an hour away. Going to Caroline's is just as dangerous for me as it is for you to go to the Back Door! Happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteI, too really like the fabrics being used in the blocks. It's going to be a sweet quilt.
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