Originally Posted by wildyard
OK, I admit it, I jumped right in and probably don't know what I am doing. Can anyone help me figure this out? For the quilt I am working on, it was making a throw size, and I wanted to have a larger quilt. What I did was double the size of all the pieces I cut, thinking that thus my squares would be twice as big and my top would be twice as big. However, this worked fine on the 4 center squares, but when I went to add the 5th row, the pieces were at least 1/2 to 1" to short. The same is true of the 6th row. Why didn't doubling the size of all the pieces work?
What pattern are you using? If your pattern has triangles in it, I don't believe that just doubling the size of the pattern pieces is going to be accurate. This is primarily due to the fact that diagonals aren't just a 1/4" seam allowance addition due to the bias edge of the piece.
Let's try an example:
If you have a 4-patch center that starts with 2" squares, your finished 4-patch center will be 3-1/2". If you are adding a strip all around to "box in" the 4-patch, the next pieces need to be 3-1/2" long for the two opposite sides, however wide you need them. The other two sides will need to be 3-1/2" long PLUS the width of the two pieces you have added. These measurements can't just be doubled and still be accurate.
A better plan as stated before, is to draft your pattern larger, then make your blocks from the newly-sized pattern you have drafted.
Or your other option would have been to just make extra blocks and add them to the sides/ends of the central quilt until you reached the size you needed.
But to fix what you have done now, I agree that you can just add a strip at the ends of any rows that don't "agree" with the length of the rows you've got now. That will help "square up" your rows/quilt, and you can tell anyone who asks that you had intended to put those there to see if people will ask you about them. It gives you an opportunity to tell others about your wonderful hobby.
Good Luck.