MollieSue

I made the biggest mistake in asking my daughter-in-law to pick out the pattern for her birthday quilt! She picked this argyle pattern.... :? :cry: It's all diamonds & parallelograms -> a word I'd never even heard of before!
I'm having a heck of a time getting the pieces sewn together. Am having to take out every seam at least once if not more, and I'm on the first block!
Does anyone have any idea on how to guage how to get the pieces lined up? They looked like they'd be sooo easy.... Ha. Not at all like doing regular straight seams!
And now it's worse, trying to match seams while putting the rows together that make up a block!
Thank you so much, for any help!!

susiequilt

It looks to me like you could just make squares in the correct pattern and turn them on point to get the same effect.
I would graft each block on paper to get the color scheme.
Put sashing between the blocks and calculate the end triangles and the side triangles.
I may be all wrong but that is what I would do.
:D

mytwopals

The bad thing with those diamond shapes is you have to pin, pin and pin everything. On one of the quilting shows I saw a while back, I believe it was an E. Burns show, she demonstrated the best way to pin these together. Basically, you put a pin 1/4 inch in the bottom piece up through where the seams come together, then put the same pin up through the top piece 1/4 inch in through where the seams come together. This keeps them from shifting as you sew.

This probably isn't a real great explanation. But maybe you can get the idea from it. It was probably one of those things you had to see to really understand. But hey, I tried.

MollieSue

Thanks so much, Mytwopals & Susiequilt!! I really appreciate your trying!
Mytwopals, I'm going to try and do your hint!!
Suiequilt, all the pieces are already cut out. The pattern directions had you cut everything out at 60 degree angles, etc, which I can't do. Too ADD. But it also had templates, so Katie came over for two afternoons and helped cut them all out.
I have two blocks done now... Am getting much better at sewing the pieces together, and my seams are about to be called good enough. lol!! ~ unless I can master Mytwopals hint!!
The pattern is in the Fall/Winter '09 Quilt Sampler magazine, should anyone else be game {crazy} to give it a try!

NorBanaquilts

I recently saw an argyle pattern that didn't look as hard as all those not nice shapes. If you want I can dig through the pile of magazines.

MollieSue

Thanks Donna, but I already have all the pieces cut out, so I'm committed to this one. :cry: lol!!!
I took a break to get my hair cut, so will work on it again later this evening. At least I'm able to get the pieces sewn together better, just need to try Mytwopals idea on matching the seams.
:)

Moonpi

I would approach it differently - making strips of the 3 colors,(brown-gray-pink/white-brown-gray/pink-white-brown) then cutting the strips at 60*. I've done lone stars like that and they are so much more stable than dealing with extra bias. I'm wondering if a touch of glue stick could help keep the seams in place until they are sewn.

kluedesigns

you might want to give the walking foot a try for piecing the block sections together.

it might help with the shifting problem and help with lining up the intersections.

MollieSue

Thanks Moonpi and Klue!
It's not so much as a shifting problem, as just sewing them together. I can't just line them up them edge to edge, as if they were regular straight cuts. To do that leaves them almost 1/4" off on the edges. This is the first time I've sewn diagonal cuts, and hopefully my last! lol!!!
Moonpi, I really like your idea! But my mind can't do degrees, etc! lol!!! Plus, I've already got all the pieces cut. {If} I ever do this again, I might look for some ruler that does the degrees for you, and try your way! It does sound much easier!
Thanks so much!! :)

Shemjo

Good lesson to learn. Don't let others pick the pattern! Get some ideas, then YOU pick out several choices of patterns that are on your level, and go from there. I had to learn that the hard way also!