Originally Posted by
Snooze2978
Before I start any quilt project I starch my fabrics. That seems to help with stretching and distortion during the sewing process for me. I make my own starch mixture using the basic Vodka Recipe and add additional liquid starch to make it even stiffer. Keeps the fraying at bay too.
My problem with this pattern was not stretching and distortion. The problem was cutting out, handling, and sewing so many small pieces as the pattern called for. I couldn't figure out why the pattern wouldn't work by strip piecing, which is so much easier and faster and I found a way to do it. I had to make my blocks slightly larger than the pattern, so the quilt is also slightly larger, but that is okay. Strip piecing made this quilt so much easier than the way the pattern was written. I appreciate your information about starching. There are some patterns where it is necessary to work with bias edges and starching helps. I really liked this pattern and was almost ready to give up and not do it when I contemplated handling so many pieces, but with encouragement from many of you, decided to work out the strip piecing and I wanted to report that it worked. Thanks to everyone.