I have been trying, all day, to do this pattern, Spools lap quilt. And "everytime" it comes out looking like this.. I dont know how to fix this and I really want to make this quilt. Can anyone help me. Im very frustrated and Im not good with points, effidently.....

I'm no expert, but the brown seems larger than the edge of the red that it's supposed to be meeting. Is it supposed to be like that?

Looks like you need to make the red 1/4" larger.

no its suppose to me. Then there's a bottom piece the same way. I cant get my corners to meet no matter what I do.

maybe you need to take a break and a deep breath have a cup of coffee and listen to marsey.

The only ting I do know is the red piece is the correct size. I cant get the corners to match no matter what I do.

See if this will help any...http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltpa...ces_spools.htm

Then is the brown a little large? LIS, I'm no expert, but all the spool blocks I've seen have the end and the middle portion the same size at the join point.

I just made one, with 4 spinning spools and I made mitered corners at each corner of the spool. Try that.

I know many people avoid miters, but I did not know they were supposed to be hard, so started out doing them on an atttic windows quilt. It was my second and I did not have a pattern, so I just made up the design.

Maybe you are sewing the pink rectangles to the wrong sides of the red rectangle?????

Or maybe the pattern isn't correct to start with!

I think Quilter's cache has the spool block.

Lucky Patsy's Mom beat me to it....if I try a new pattern, and no matter what I do, it doesn't "look right", I ditch the pattern. Or I adjust to MAKE it work! I've found a # of patterns on the internet for crocheting are wrong. I haven't found it often (or ever) with quilt patterns, but it's a thought. Good luck!

Personally, I would do it paper pieced, it's a very simple block to do that way.

Ive never done paper piecing. What is it

The pattern is done on paper, broken down into sections, and then the sections are broken down and numbered. It's very easy. If you go to quilterscache, she has a tutorial on it, and she also has a spool paper piece pattern, I think. If you Goggle paper piecing tutorial, you'll get a lot more information. If you still need a pattern, PM me and I'll get one to you.

where did you get that pattern? they don't all work. sometimes there's a printed mistake.

try drawing your 1/4" seam line on the Back of each piece.
place a pin through each place the lines intersect. at least one more pin along the seam. then sew.
an accurate 1/4" really makes a difference on this kind of piecing. hope this helps.

Could be that your "scant 1/4" isn't really scant, and you only notice it because there's 2 seams on the spool piece...

Or.... when you've used some thread from a spool, that's exactly how it looks!!! So these are used thread spools, not new ones....

The placement of the light corners on the brown is not correct. It's not a true HST which is what you want it to be. Take another square of the light and fold it over the brown matching the seam line to the red and you can see exactly where it needs to be seamed to the brown so it will match up to the red. I have a short cut for making spools, I'll post it later I got an appt. this morning.

Seems to me you are doing a large rectangle with two squares on the corners and sewing a line along the middle, trim and open. From the look of the right side, you are not doing the line right in the middle. It helps if you mark it first. The size of the square has to be the same measurement of the short side of the rectangle, on both sides.

The cream squares on each end of the brown need to be redone. The seam needs to be exactly 1/4", and sewn to a very careful point at the edge that joins to the red. This is where the careful 1/4" seams are so important so that when you do the next 1/4" seam everything joins like it's supposed to. Read the instructions again...maybe it gives the dimension of the brown on the edge that sews to the red. You can check it before you try to sew it again. 1/4" from the edge it should be the same width as the red. You can check it that way. Then carefully sew the 1/4". It should work. ;)

The spools pattern I did had different dimensions. I also made the sides of the spool as a combined piece and the center as a combined piece, where your combined piece is the top etc.
Not sure if my pic will help you or not.
It was also the first quilt I ever did. PM me if you want me to try to explain it better.

The width of the brown fabric needs to be as wide as the width of the side panel of the muslin (both measured raw). Then cut a square the width of the brown fabric. Sewn across the diagonal, it will provide the matching triangle.

Another option is to make the red wider.

draw your pattern out on a piece of paper and make it into a paer piece project when i have had troubles with somthing that is what i do than it turns out the way it is supose to be good luck i know how frustrating this can bee

My experience with points is that they will beat you before you beat them, so just do as Kay Wood says and do them right the first time. I want everything to just go together whoosh-whoosh, but with geometrical points, it just isn't going to happen. (I have that talk with myself almost every day. <g>) One thing you might consider is to take the parts apart and move the red part slightly to the left. That way, the difference between the red and brown will be more even, so it will look like it was supposed to be that way. (See... I'm already trying to fudge.)

Wouldn't doing half square triangles be easier?

Let's check your sizes.

Your half square triangles need to be the same sized as the height of the top of the spool and the width of the white background sides.

Your brown center top of the spool and your red center each need to be the same width (if you are using three patches across the top)

What are the ends of the spools? Do you have two half square triangles or one piece of brown fabric with squares sewn on the diagonal and trimmed at each end?

If you could tell us how the top of the spool is constructed (one piece with two diagonals, or one rectangle and two half square triangles) and the size of the strips you are cutting, and then tell us the size of the background and center pieces. Maybe then we can help you figure out what is not working correctly for you.

Diane

here is the Quilters cache Spool block like was suggested..and it is being done the way you are doing yours..

http://www.quilterscache.com/S/SpoolBlock.html

This is the way i make them..
a short video to watch:

http://www.craftster.org/video/Spool...lock-215075523

Good Luck...

Do not give up! You can do it! It really does seem like your original pattern might be off. Try some other spool patterns with your scraps. You'll get it spot on and you'll learn a lot. There are lots of ways to accomplish that block. You might have to play around and find one you like best. It is a neat block isn't it?

are you doing the 1/4th seam allowance? your top is bigger and thats what I would look at first. but I am just learning so I might be way off. Penny

Not affiliated, but there is a wonderful book, PERFECT PIECING Rodale's Successful Quilting Library that will help you. Published by Rodale Press, Inc. Emmaus, Pennsylvania.ISBN 0-87596-760-4. Try Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com using the ISBN No. and maybe you can find one used.
A variation for clarity from their instructions. When you need to match the short side of a right triangle to the edge of a square or rectangle, you'll notice that the triangle edge is longer than that of the square. For 1/4" seam, align the pieces so the edges match. The tips of the triangle will extend beyond the corners of the square. Pin the two patches together. The triangle should intersect the square exactly 1/4 inch from the side of the square. In other words, the square and the triangle points should meet at the stitching line, leaving the points of the triangle "sticking out" After stitching and pressing the seam to one side, trim off the extending triangle points to reduce bulk in the finished quilt.

OMG I feel your pain. I have had that happen several times and it is very very frustrating. My immediate thought is "What did I do wrong" but many times its not something I did wrong. Before this past christmas I was making a christmas tree skirt for my sister in law - my mom found me a wonderful pattern on the internet, printed it out and even cut the templates for me. I went out and took hours picking just the right fabrics. It was put together in three sections, inner piece of the pie, middle and outer section then you put the pieces of pie together to make the circle. Well, when I went to put the 3 sections together (with curves) there was no way they were going together. I quadruple checked the pieces to mae sure they matched the templates. After wracking our brains we went back to the pattern. It turns out, the pieces in the middle and outter section were scaled to fit on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and it was not obvious on the pattern that had been done. I had to put the whole thing away I was so frustrated. Here is a picture - it would have been a gorgeous tree skirt too.

Correction - sorry, the center (inner) section was scaled significantly to fit on the paper. The other sections were scaled also, just not as severely.

This is the most amazing site - everyone is SO HELPFUL! So glad I found it :-)

As watterstide said, it appears your're trying to do your spools the same way that Quilterscache has the block drawn out...no wonder you're having trouble...Mitered corners and Y seams, while not impossible, are usually attempted after a person has become familiar with doing simpler techniques...or maybe using paper piecing technique as another poster suggested. If you use the concept of the 9 patch to make your block (video on watterstide post) you'll find it goes together much more easily. Don't get discouraged, we all have had event's like yours but not all of us are able to ask for help like you have.

This is the block I used for practicing paperpiecing. I would give paper piecing a try.

It is a good idea to make a sample block first out of scraps, you can cut, recut or whatever to work out problems to make it fit and look as it should. If you can't work it to look as it should, use your fabric for an easier pattern. Maybe after more experience you can try it again. Quilting is suppose to be fun and dealing with a difficult pattern is not fun.

Thanks to all with your help. I love this pattern and Im going to perfect it, if it kills me. When (if) I get it done I will post the end results. No one hold there breath for this, I dont want anyone passing out from the time frame. Thanks again.....

I've read all the helpful suggestions...thought I'd add mine. I would strongly suggest you spray starch the fabrics and press before you cut them out! It appears from your picture that some stretching may have occurred.
This will help keep the pieces more stable while you are working with them...Good luck!!

Ditter

I do spray starch all my fabric. Im just not good at seams that meet. Im very depressed about this, but I will keep trying.