katie1

I'm making my first bed-sized quilt - a king. the design is a square in a square - The inside square is made of 3 approximately 21/2"x 10" rectangles set on point, the 4 corners of the block are half square triangles. It finishes to a 10 inch block. It's not a very forgiving pattern because there's only the 1/4" between the tip of the on point inner square and the side of the block which of course is the seam allowance. Any more taken up and I lose the tip of my on point square. I wish I had made the 4 half square triangles which are in the 4 cornes of the block a bit bigger so I would have something there to be able to square my blocks, but I can't because if I cut even a sliver off, it comes out of the 1/4" seam allowance making for a really skinny weak seam or I lose the tip of the points. I've sewn the squares in a 9x9 arrangement. The border is basically another pieced block - three 3" x 10 1/2" rectangles (the math may not be quite right here, but I'm writing from memory). I basically then end up with a 10 block by 10 block quilt. I've joined all 81 blocks together and the sides and top and bottom aren't 100% even. If I cut anything off now to even anything, I'm still going to lose my 1/4" seam allowance and the inner block on point will lose its tip pointing to the outside. Is the best thing to do now is to sew on the blocks for the border one side at a time going around the quilt? And then straighten the sides by lopping off however much I need to by taking it out of the border "block" which consists of the 3 rectangles sewn together? I don't need to cut more than 1/8" to 1/2" in order to make the sides/top/bottom completely straight and square. Its too much to ease in. I don't think it would be that noticeable since each border 'block' is 10" and the 3 rectangles making these border blocks just run parallel to the quilt sides. Does this make the most sense? Since it's such a huge quilt and my first bed sized quilt, I don't feel too bad having 1/2 inch hanging out here and there. At least I was able to sew the whole thing together. Any suggestions welcome. Picture below from a book that shows the type of on point square in a square that I'm talking about, not the actual quilt that I'm making. (If I can get it attached that is.)