I've started pieceing some tumbling blocks for my patriotic quilt. I'm just curious what your experiences are with these blocks and what tips you have for piecing them. One important thing I have learned from a fellow quilter on the board is that the seams can not be sewn to meet. Makes for a little more work, but it totally worth the look of the block. I am really excited to see what this will look like once I get more blocks done and I start putting them together.


So, anyone have any tips or tricks?

I found out how to do them without the Y seams. I found the link here on this forum. I made a table runner in a few hours using this method.




:) http://www.quiltingboard.com/posts/list/19604.page

I'm making mine with 60 degree diamonds, each side is 5 inches. I'm not sure the technique used on the quilterscache site would work for me. But maybe because I am still so new to quilting, that the Y seams don't seem to bother me yet. I've got 4 blocks done so far. I notice that I have to use my disappearing ink pen to mark all my seams. I'm trying to keep my seams perfectly straight and the only way I can do that is by marking them. I also put a little dot where the seams meet so I know where to back stitch.

I just finished a tumbling block top using the booklet - Not your grandmother's tumbling blocks. It used strips. You can look it up with your favorite search engine. There are quite a few hits. It came out pretty good.

here's a video's on doing Y seams.

they really aren't hard i don't know why people freak about doing a Y.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxlTQXoF740

In the that video, she eliminates a step that I was taking...instead of turning the block to finish it, I was taking it out and pressing the seam before going and sewing the last seam. I'll try to eliminate that step in the next block. Also thinking of going 8 blocks wide. This top is working pretty fast because the blocks are pretty big. 8 blocks goes the length of my ironing board.

I made a tumbling blocks quilt for DH - he picked out the colors. I found that marking the starting and stopping point on each side made life easier. Inset seams are more time-consuming but I like the effect of the blocks.

http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/f...cks_detail.jpg

you don't need to press before adding on the 3rd diamond.

just follow the video exactly and you'll have all the perfect cubes you need in about 60 minutes.

our church made a queen size tumbling block to sell and myself and 1 other person did all the cubes in 75 minutes.

we didn't press anything until the cube was done. we had 1 other person taking the finished cubes off the back of our machines for pressing.

Martina, you quilt came out beautifully!

Klue, that is a great idea. I'm going to skip pressing until they are done. I'm marking all my seams at one, then sewing and then pressing. I'm not sure how many blocks I'm making yet, I'll just keep making them until I get to a size I like.

Do you think it's possible to piece the blocks as I go or should I wait until I have them all made?

if you're doing the same colors for the all blocks you can piece as you go.

if you're doing a scrappy style i would wait until the end and play with them on the design board finding that perfect look.