Dear all,
a while ago I asked for everyone to vote on the quilt I should make for baby #2--Malachi. Well, the one on point won by an overwhelming majority. I'm glad, it is my favorite, too. My question is--for the partial blocks on the outside edge--do I make with whole blocks and cut off the "extra"??? This seems to me it would waste alot of fabric, but trying to cut the partial block to just the right size before I piece it seems difficult as well. Please help. I have about 30 blocks made and would like to start assembling. I hope my question isn't too confusing. It's been a LONG day.

any advice is appreciated.

Rose Hall

Here are a few sites that tell you how to cut your triangles, hope this helps.

http://www.quiltville.com/onpointmath.shtml

http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltse...ngtriangls.htm

http://www.quiltersreview.com/articl...g/001127_a.asp

I did one of these and its tricky if you're not following a pattern. According to the pattern that I used, the end pieces were cut 2x the size of the original block and then sliced in half. I know it sounds weird, but try one block and see if it works. Another way that I can think of is lay a couple of the rows together and place a piece of paper underneath and then trace the size and add 1/4" for allowance. I hope one of these help.

Love the pattern!!

I would add an inch or 2 and then just cut the whole square in half.

So let's say the blue square in the quilt is 6" finished, 6.5" unfinished. For the corner pieces, I'd cut it 8", cut it in half (so it can be used for 2), and trim to size. Nothing mathematical about it :) And then of course, try it for 1, see if it works before cutting all of them.

Or come on here and say "here's the size of the middle block - tell me size to cut the side blocks"

This may sound MORE confusing. - But when I do an "on-point" - I try to cut the outside partial triangle such that the straight of the goods are along the edge and I cut them a bit oversize. This will help diminish the ruffling effect when you add your borders and binding.

You need two kinds of triangles:

The corners are made using TWO squares, cut corner to corner. This puts the grainlines on the outside edges and the bias is attached to a grainline. This stabilizes the bias and keeps you from having a bias on the outside.

The other triangles are made from squares cut into 4 pieces, corner to corner. This puts the grainline on that outside edge, and your bias edges are attached to interior blocks that stabilize the bias.

Bottom line: You want grainlines along the outside edge, and you want bias edges stabilized by attaching to blocks that are on grainlines. If you have bias on the outside edge, you WILL end up with what we call friendly borders: they will wave at you. I'll go see if I can find a link that helps you figure out the sizes.

Yep, the first one has the measurements for doing the triangles the way I said. Cute quilt!! Be sure to post pictures when you are done!!

That's what scares me about making a quilt on point - bias edges! I have one WIP put aside when I got to that point in the pattern.

Shelley - your instructions make sense as I read them. Hopefully they'll still make sense when I cut!

Makes perfect sense and I completely agree with you. I just did a pattern that was the exact opposite. Corners were doublecut, sides were single cut. And the bias makes me sad. And is a pain to work with. I didn't know how to change it to get the right sizes so I figured I could deal with the bias long enough to put the border on.

ugh. I think I'm in over my head. this one may not get finished until he goes to college. I hate math.

thanks for the help! I'll post a picture IF I can get the measurements right!

Rose