I am making the Multi-faceted quilt which is a strip-tubing quilt. I am using Hoffman's Bali-Pops (2.5" strips). The directions say to sew two strips together, set aside. Then for the background fabric, one option is to sew two background fabrics (2.5" ea) together to make a 4.5" strip, or to just cut 4.5" strips. I chose to cut 4.5" strips.

The problem is that the Bali Pops are not accurate 2.5" strips, because when I sewed the background pieces to the strip sets it was apparent that the Bali-Pop strip sets did not measure a full 4.5" (closer to 4.25" at best). I was very careful with my sewing of the strips, maintaining an accurate 1/4" seam.

I am at the point of using the triangular ruler to cut the blocks but I am not sure how these blocks are going to go together because of this inaccuracy. I fear that when I arrange the blocks my intersections where color meets color are not going to line up well.

Have any of you dealt with this problem? Is this method more forgiving? I am, as you can imagine not too pleased in the inaccuracy of these Bali-Pop strips. They are expensive (relatively) and essential to this pattern. :cry: :cry: :cry:

I would trim what you call "background" to be exactly the width of the Bali Pop strip set. I think if the two are the same width, no matter what that is, that the pattern will work.

I would recut your strips to match the bali pop ones... Or you can cut a block or two and see how you like them the way they are now...
Either way you go, you probably will have to make further adjustments to your pattern as you go along.
I am sorry this happened to you!!!

Another thought is to sew the Bali strips a very scant 1/4" and see if that gets you closer to where you want to be :wink:

I've had the same thing happen with jelly rolls. The stips were cut almost an 1/8th of an inch short. I just used them and adjusted the rest of the fabric I used.

Thank you Teacup, Amma, and Tirnhi. When I sewed the strip sets to the background fabric I used the strip sets as my guide for the 1/4" seams so my background fabric extends beyond. I can trim that up. Hopefully the blocks will go together well. :D :D :D

That is so frustrating. I have had that same problem with jelly rolls. They are not always accurate.

I've had the same problem with jelly rolls as well, which is very irritating. They aren't 2.5", it's more like 2 and 7/16", which over an 8" block amounts to a 1/4" discrepancy. Maddening, yes.

I'm sorry this has happened to you & hope it all works out okay with your quilt. Sounds like you have been given good advice. A friend of mine ran into this same issue with Bali Pops. Not a good thing! The Downey Quilt for Kids I am working on now had very uneven strips. Hoping that I can work it out. I wish you the best of luck.

Bali Pops are hand cut. Their measurements can vary as a result.