What am I doing wrong with Tumbling block quilt
 

I have been working off and on. ( ok More off then on) on this quilt for my son since May. I have cut a lot but now that I am putting it all together I am afraid I am doing something wrong. I have taken a lot of pics, hoping you ladies can help me out. Not only see what I am doing wrong but also to get some motivation to finish.

well here is some info on them-
http://quilterscache.com/T/TumblingBlocksBlock.html
http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/tumbl...cks/index.html
( I am going to see Marci Baker next week at my sewing machine store)

That is so cool. I am using her book. By next week I will know if I hate her or love her... Just kidding. Love the book. ;-)

I'm not sure why you think something is wrong. It looks fine to me. The picture of your design wall looks lovely, and I think if you follow the layout you're going to have a wonderful quilt when you are done. Is there something specific that you are concerned about?

Oops, I do see one mistake (?). In the strip you have separate on your table - you have 2 white triangles sewn together. I think the left-hand section (the 2 pieces you had with a white triangle that is now on the right) should have been turned 180 degrees before you sewed it together. See circled section below.

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Ok I see that. What about the fact that the points don't really match up, and that there is sections that hang out more than others? Is that a problem in the over all quilt?

The tumbling blocks I made are all 60 degree diamonds not triangles. I haven't made this version.

For me, it would be - but that's me.

If your sewn together pieces are laying flat enough to suit you and you can live with cut off points, finish it off and call it a learning experience. If this is done consistently, then it will look 'the same' throughout the quilt top and you can say that you planned to do it that way.

For next time, when you sew the shapes together, the triangle tips should end up being 1/4 inch from the edge - it looks like on most of them on this one, the point/tip is at the edge - and then when the strips are sewn together, the point disappears.

thanks everyone. Bearisgray, that is what I was wondering about the most. I will finish cleaning the bathroom and then will work on it some more.. huh I hope it works. I sure have a lot of pieces cut that I did not even take pics of.

I didn't even notice. I do tend to have trouble with points, and don't really notice if they aren't perfect on quilts. I think other's addressed this already - sewing triangles/diamonds together is quite tricky. The alignment to make sure that your point ends up 1/4" from the outside edge can be difficult, and in my experience it's a case of trial and error until you get used to it. In any case though, I think you should proceed, and work to improve your alignment as you move forward.

I've learned to put dots at where the seam intersections should be and then match up the dots - when working with triangles and diamond shapes, there are sometimes dog ears sticking out - and that can be confusing to a newbie.

did you look at the quilterscache one? it shows how they are put together in larger triangle units. and pressed very nice and flat too. good luck.

Have you considered trying this?
Practice sewing them together using several of the cut triangles which you have NOT already sewn together and ripped out.

1. Mark your seam allowance on (the wrong side of) both pieces of 3-4 pairs of triangles.
2. Sew a pair together noticing where the intersections of the seam lines meet and making sure they meet on both pieces of the pair.....you'll have to turn it over to check.
3. After you've done this a couple of times, just mark the intersection of the seam lines with a dot, and try sewing 2-3 pair again. Are you still matching the dots on both sides of the pair?
4. If you are matching the sides properly, you can now likely eyeball where this seam allowance intersection is, notice how much point of each triangle hangs over, and can sew the rest of them together without much trouble.

Best luck!

Jan in VA

Don't know if it would help, but this might be a time to try the Elmers School Glue and glue your points in place prior to sewing. Just a thought.

funny, my son chose the same pattern and I started his last fall... luckily for me, he only picked three batik colors so my tumbling blocks were easier to kep together. I took the summer off from quilting but am now ready to pick up the pieces (or strips in my case) and start sewing them together. Yours will be lovely when you get it finished.

you need that 1/4 extending beyond the edge for there to be a turning ease so to speak, otherwise the points won't line up.
if you decide to not go back and fix the others, i'd make them the rows on the bottom and top of the quilt, equal number if possible so it can look intentional and then make the body of the quilt with your points showing.

Neat. Thanks for sharing.

First, you have made good fabric choices. Just keep in mind that each strip should go the way you have on the strips you joined, right leaning diamond, triangle, left leaning diamond, repeat. As Kristakz said, the cutting and seam allowances need to be exact for this to work.

If you are not comfortable doing that RIGHT NOW, do another project and come back to this one. I am not suggesting giving up on it, merely postponing it until you have a few more projects 'under your belt'. Recently, I tried an 'impossible' UFO and found it was NOW really easy for me.

I've made a few tumbling block quilts, and what I see with yours is that you don't have a "light source". The blocks should always consist of three fabrics - light, medium and dark, and those should always be in the same position on each block. The fabrics can be totally different, like a scrappy quilt, but the tones always need to be in the same position. I love your blues and it'll turn out great.

One pt when sewing diamonds together is placing the pieces so that 1/4 inch is off set - you do not line up the corners like you would in sewing a square together - look on line for a tutorial on sewing triangles or diamonds together.

triangles are so stretchy and add in the points?

meltdown time for the perfectionist.

(that's sort of why i am working on a log cabin after doing a lone star followed by a pin wheel. and you know what? some of the damn logs are wonkavatored. i'm honeybadgered about it though. it's for me :)

your colours are lovely. it will all work out just fine (after the crying.)

aileen

ok, so think of a tumbling block as the light shining down from the top of the cube with the lightest on top, med. and then dark on the bottom - just like the sun. I hope this makes sense it will make the cubes really pop! Lots of luck!

What I learned when I did a tumbling blocks quilt is keep the light diamonds on top and you've already done that. I think it doesn't look right to you because it's still segmented and once it's together it's going to be a good-looking quilt. Mine was all diamonds; I ordered pre-cut pieces from Paper Pieces.com because I enjoy English paper piecing. It was easy and I liked doing it. Keep going, you're going to be happy with it when it's finished.

I think it is awesome. I love your color choices. Sometimes my points and corners don't exactly match but then when I get it back from the long arm quilter I cannot find them! :D

I download free graph paper from the internet. You can find the paper that has hex shapes. Then I take colored pencils and color out the shapes. Next with a dark marker I draw a line between each strip. Finally I follow the colored graph to sew the quilt together.

Hope some one has the answer because I am having problems with the one I am working on. nothing is fitting, no pictures of mine it's hiding in a bag in the closet.

When you place two triangles together to stitch them, DON'T match the seam edges...on diagonal cuts you want the amount of the seam allowance to poke out at each end. The "V" formed by the offset should be where your stitches start. That's what's making your pieces not match up when you open them.
Here is a blog that shows how to offset the seam allowances:
http://urban-patchwork.com/?p=996

Scroll down a bit and you will see where this gal put arrows and tells you to offset the edges of the pieces... and also note in that same picture where she starts her 1/4" stitching..right in the "crook" of the "V" formed by the offset.

For your seam points...the above may solve most of that...but make sure you are using the same seam allowance throughout...I don't care if it's 1/4", 3/8", whatever...just stay constant. If you are even a few threads off..your seams will either cut off the points, or the points won't meet.

I love the colors you chose...this is going to be a beautiful quilt!
Marge

Also...starch the heck out of those pieces. Starch and press (don't slide the iron...press, lift the iron, put it back down, etc.). The starching and pressing will help keep the pieces from stretching out of shape.

A key word (I saw) in Quilter's Cache was to sew a SCANT 1/4 inch; and the other postings about NOT matching the dog-ear corners are right on!! I hate the quilt police, but the points should be pretty sharp. Sad, but true. LOL

It's coming along. Would love to see the finished project. You've given me inspiration to go finish some of mine... ttyl...

Thanks for the help ladies. I still have not tackled it. It stares at me all the time, my husband says GO FINISH IT>>> and when I see it laying there it just screams at me. I don't like that at all. Will have to hide the rows I sewed and start over that way. Maybe tomorrow I will work on it some more. Today I took a nap :-)

this is why i haven't tried this. maybe when i'm older and more mature! this board is great for help and support! sorry i'm no help, but i think your colors are great and it will be terrific when you have it all put together!

Ok Just a little up date in case you are wondering. After taking all this time to mull it over I have decided that I cut the wrong size strips and triangles. So I am going to scrap what I have done and start over. I was really disappointed in the fact that I have so many strips all ready seed, cut and ready to be swaen together. BUt I can't use them since I know it will affect the over all quilt. and I would always see the mistakes. So I will start fresh. follow the directions to the letter. (I changed it because I thought the measurements were wrong.) wont do that again.. and make my son one the right way.

But not to despair I have always wanted to make a red, white and blue quilt. So will add some red and white to the blue and white and make a scrappy quilt. Will start dreaming of ideas now and looking for some red fabric. I already have ideas so I will be motivated to finish my sons quilt so I can start on the other one. Or maybe I will have to wait because I will be tired of the blue. Either way I know eventually I will make another quilt out of what I have already cut.

thank you for all the advice and support. Will show you the final results when it is done..

The thousand pyramids quilts I've seen are based on equilateral triangles.

So - I will get to that -

The first drawing is a triangle in a square unit (Doreen Speckmann called them Peaky and Spike units) - the reason for showing that is that the sharper (more acute) the angle, the longer the 'tails' are when the seam allowance is added.

The lower three shapes are based on 60 degree (equilateral) triangles) The diamond shape has 60, 120, 60, 120 degrees angles and the triangle has 60, 60, and 60 degree angles.

The diamond and triangles are traced around templates from Pandora's Box as seen on Quilting from the Heartland, hosted by Sharlene Jorgenson.

The outside lengths of the equilateral triangle are longer by about 5/16 of an inch than the outside lengths of the diamond.

I rotary cut some paper shapes and used a ruler to mark 1/4 inch from the edge near the corner where the seams intersect. When using fabric, I usually use an ordinary lead pencil and make the marks just dark enough so I can see them. If using dark fabric, I use a 'silver' pencil or a chalk pencil.

I've found this to be helpful - even now - for getting triangles to line up correctly. A shortcut is to make a template the 'finished' size and just put that in the center of each piece and mark around the corners.

When I sew these, I line up the points where the seams intersect and pin there - I fold the fabric back and peek to make sure that it will open up the way that I want it to.

This scan shows how I pin the pieces together and how it would look from the right side (the markings should be on the back of a 'real' unit - but this is to show you how it looks and the tails that are sticking out.

WOW - Bearisgray - you do great templates and instructions!

This scan shows everything flipped over and what I would do to create a 'finished size' template for marking the corners.

Triangles are not that big of a deal if one marks the seam intersections and pins them together properly - and allows for the tails/dog ears.

Finished?
 

Please give me the good news that you have completed this quilt! I am having the same problems you had. I am all excited about finishing this quilt that it's really upsetting me that things aren't lining up. Linda

I am sure mine had a white section between each block. Iam angel can't see any mistakes it's beautiful.