beyer border prints - help?
 

hi!

what are your tips and tricks and goof fixes for working to make these prints line up symmetrically?

i have read the tutorials, watched her videos and i am trying really hard. but i know people who do this have little tricks they use to fix goofs and prevent them.

please share?

i have 44 more corners to go....but here's an example of what i'm doing. two of the corners are perfect and two are not. i would love them to be just so, knowing they'll only ever be so close :)

thanks!

aileen

They all look good to me.

I haven't any tips etc to offer, but just wanted to say I had to really study the block to see which corners you meant!! whatever you are doing looks really good. Love the colours and pattern - think its going to be a beautiful quilt.

You could make a template and mark the center of it, then center the template over your design and cut the pieces out one at a time.

There probably is a more efficient way of doing it, but by cutting out each piece separately, one has a lot of control over the placement of the template.

I once cut out a kaleidoscope quilt by cutting one piece, then laying that piece over the exact same place in the print and then cutting around the "original" piece - and using that first cut piece as a pattern for the rest of the pieces.

hm....okay. but i think the problem isn't so much the cutting as making the mitres themselves. the blocks are absolutely square, so i centered the flower motif to the centre of the block. the worst of the corners is quite obviously off because while the block is square, it is not necessarily symmetrical.

i could of course just chill out. but jinny's are always so accurate so i know it's POSSIBLE you know?

aileen

and thank you, always always.

aileen

Personally, I think it looks fine. I really had to look. I think if the narrow edge on either side of the flowers was off, that would be noticeable. Yours is perfect!

Love your block,and I liked Bearsisgray's suggestions.

Looks perfect to me. If mine looked that good, I'd be doing a happy dance.

Since you think it was making the miters, I would guess your block wasn't completely square, so squaring up or blocking the block square would help. Or the seams are slightly off. I'm always struggling with my 1/4" seams. Otherwise you could use the method for rectangles.
Just a thought!
By the way, the sample looks lovely, and while the one corner is noticeable if you are clued in the look for it I don't think most people will notice.

Your block is drop dead gorgeous and wow what a spectacular quilt this will make. If the rest of your blocks have the same visual impact as this one I really don't think anyone will notice that the corner design doesn't match up exactly. While barely noticeable, obviously it bothers you or you wouldn't have posted. I would recommend marking the wrong side of the fabric where your miter should go (both strips) or pressing the miter fold in so you have a guide to sew. This way you can "fudge" it about until the designs line up perfectly. Then pin or even glue the printed border to your block and use lots of pins. Think it is pinned enough? Add 3 more, especially in the critical areas like at the end where you want to stop and start. Then you can use elmer's school glue to hold the miter in place while you sew.

Jenny does a lot (or maybe even all) of her stuff by hand. Hand piecing gives you a lot more control and ability to manipulate the fabric to line the designs up perfectly. So another consideration is you can hand stitch your miters and then if you wish take it back to the machine and restitch over the hand work as long as it lined up to your liking.

Rate your work on your own merits as you will make yourself crazy comparing yourself to others.

Here's the way I would do it - there are five gold dot motifs on each side, match the center of each side of your block and the center of the middle motifs and pin from there.
But I think your block looks nice too, you really have to look closely to see the difference in the corners.

I really don't know what has caused your corner to be off but I was wondering if it could be due to how you squared up the flower block. Did you use a ruler with the diagonal 45 degree line on it and put that line right down the center of that sewn line in the middle of the flower before cutting? Your block could be square but not "squared" on the flower. Not sure if that makes sense to you but hopefully you will get it figured out. And as someone else mentioned, Jinny Byer does hand piece and that does make it easier to be more accurate. By the way, what a lovely block that is!

When I do miters and patterns such as yours, I measure a few times and draw chalk lines where the seams should be sewn. Then I make notes on tiny stickers to let me know if I sew on the line, to the left or to the right. I place those on the blocks near the chalk line. My sewing can get really close to ideal when I do this. Love this block and the green. Can't wait to see the finished product.

After looking waaaay more carefully at the block - I do see what the original poster means - especially on the bottom miter.

There also seems to be some puckering of the fabric against the outside strips - so - perhaps the inside block is "a bit too big" for the outside strips and needs to either be cut down a bit - or the seams need to a very tiny wider to "shrink" the block size. Or did the puckering occur when it was pressed?

Is that last seam a diagonal one through the center of the block?

As far as those last miter joins - for "marking" or pinning - I stick a pin vertically into the "exact" spot where the vertices meet - and then pin on both sides beside the vertical pin - and remove the vertical pin.

The reason I do not leave the pin in the "exact" spot is that when I "lay the pin on its side" - there is a bit of distortion and then the seam gets more "off" then when I insert the "holding pins" on each side of the "exact" spot.

Hand basting of the join is another possibility. It's sometimes worth the effort!

I have only made one quilt with JB fabric for the border so I only had 4 corners to contend with. But I did measure around a motif and cut all the borders exactly the same. It does take precision cutting and sewing to make it come out perfect. I know I ripped out one corner a couple of times before it was right. Yours look great even if not perfect.

A beautiful block!!! I only see one tiny glitch in the bottom corner and as someone said, it wouldn't be noticed--except by you. This is a great thread and will go into a folder! What is the pattern? I love JB's fabrics but don't know if I'd be brave enough to try them.

the pattern is cleopatra's fan - a freebie on the kaufmann website. i hand pieced the block and added the border by machine so the puckering is a result of different thread tensions. i figure once quilted and washed it will be more than fine.

i think klo's idea about what happened is true. the block is pieced in halves and then joined through the centre like that. none of the four are identical, but as setting blocks they'll be far enough apart that they'll seem identical, mostly.

handbasting makes a lot of sense in this context, as do bear's ideas about pin setting. and the rest ofyour thoughts too. so appreciated.

thank you so much. this place is a treasure.

aileen

Maybe hand sew the outside pieces on, too? You already have a lot of time invested in the center of the block.

stillclock - thank you for responding to our posts - it is very validating when the original poster "gets back" to those of us that have suggestions/opinions

Same here. As others have said, you really have to look to see any issues. Don't forget: we are our own worst critics and who sees it at 50 feet on a galloping horse. :)

I only see a problem because you mentioned it.

Winnie Fleming covers this topic in her Finishing Techniques (or a title real close to that) class on craftsy. She explains in detail how to cut the border fabrics (and why). It is a class I have referred to for other topics and I plan to use her method when I get to work with a miter.

Good luck - your block is beautiful.

Beautiful block.

I do not think fabric is printed exact enough to get it closer to perfect than you already have it . Looks great

Don't have an answer for you but that block is stunning.
I love it.

It took me a minute to see the one miter. If I weren't putting it in a show, I wouldn't bother to fix it... but since you asked:

I'm sure you've already watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNPOkcyrMSg

Jinny says the block doesn't need to be perfectly square. The trick is to line up the center of your border strip with the exact center of the block & then mark the 1/4" points on both your border & block. It looks like you may have needed to ease in a bit of the block in that section in order for your points to match up.

I really had to study the picture to figure out what you were talking about. I think Bearisgray has the right idea.

A demo at our guild meeting for mitering corners of a quilt might work. You sew on your borders, stop exactly 1/4 inch from the corner. Then you iron your your miter and make sure your seams line up. Place a piece of painters tape over it to hold it all in place. Then you flip it over and sew exactly on your crease. Hope this makes sense.
Your block is gorgeous.

How can you find a 'trick' when you've done so excellently!? For the record, anyone who measures or critiques lines not matching, doesn't deserve my works of art!

My only thought was, to take out 5 or 6 stitches in the middle of what you consider an error (I think it is beautiful and no one would ever notice! We are our worse enemies). Jiggle just that little bit ad see if you can make it more pleasing to you. If there is a saggy bit, put that on the bottom when you resew. Might help!

I have never pieced such an intricate border like yours before. First one looks good so what you have done, just be sure to repeat it exactly.

I made a Paddle Wheel quilt, the inside out log cabin. The outside of the 12 1/2 inch block is totally bias. The corners had a seam which need to go exactly into the corner when the sashing was on.

I laid my 12 1/2 ruler on my ironing board, drew around it with a pigma pen and made lines radiating out for the extension of the corners. I laid the block on that with the seams exactly in the corners and pinned them down Then I spray starched well, let it set a moment, and ironed it dry. My seams turned out perfectly into the corners.

I had muslin on my ironing board, but if you don't want to mark up your ironing board cover, lay freezer paper on it, mark on the freezer paper, and when you are finished it comes right off.

I finally really looked hard again (after rereading your original post) and found what you were talking about in the mitered corners. Those two corners were so "un-noticable" it took a long while to find it.
But I understand it now. I think Bearisgrey has the correct answer in saying to cut each piece separately. Good luck, and your piece is beautiful.

Jinny Beyer designs the most gorgeous fabrics around, but they can be daunting to work with. Check The Quilt Pattern Magazine for tips from their editors. Earlier this year there were a number of tips for working with Jinny's border prints. I love them and have many in my stash, but sometimes they scare me. Cut them the wrong way, use them the wrong way and you have a mish mash. There was a pattern in TQPM called "Jewels of the Orient" and I was sure that the Jinny Beyer border prints would work fantastically. Posed the question to the editors of the magazine and was told straight out where I could run into big trouble. That is the honesty I want and so Jinny's border prints are waiting for another project.

I don't see the "imperfect ones" they look just great to me.

That's what I was thinking - not all fabric is perfectly printed.

Thanks for posting that link to the video - :)- because that's how I've cut things when i wanted an "exact" match for the pieces - by laying the first cut piece on the others as a "pattern/template" for the rest of the pieces.

What a beautiful block, both the pattern and the colors! Please keep posting pictures of your progress!

I think it looks great, but what if you placed one of those little yellow flowers in the center of your block edge before you cut? Wouldn't that make the corners all the same? I think you are being just a tad fussy, but I understand your thoughts. Think about how t is going to pull up just a little bit when its quilted. Also look at those blocks again tomorrow and you will probably be happier with them.