ready to call this one a baller.
 

this frank lloyd wright quilt is just not working.

i have:

-checked my cuts
-paid for a lesson to make sure i was stitching at the right seam allowance
-consulted with the instructor who assured me my cuts were right, as were my seam allowances
-looked at other people's projects to see if their pieces lined up (they do)
-borrowed a newer machine
-used a vintage machine
-starched the daylights out of everything and pressed like a maniac terrified of moving the iron
-avoided steam
-cried

i don't know what else to do. there are 36 little tiny pieces that come together to make side panels to compliment a pieced chevron and if they don't line up the quilt is not going to work.

in spite of the list above, they are not lining up. i am not quite done, but i am so frustrated. so incredibly unbelievably frustrated.

aileen

I feel your pain! No matter how long I have quilted, sometimes a pattern just defeats me. It may be time to redesign and make it an original. Rename it "Frank Lloyd Wrong.":mad:

this book has really mixed reviews. some people like it, others seem to have had the same problems i am having.

it has not been republished, and there isn't an overabundance of completed projects up for show on the web.

ima drink a glass of wine and blame the pattern ;)

aileen

I vote for blaming the pattern .... good luck!

How disappointing! Doesn't the instructor have any words of wisdom to help you out? I have been looking at that book online and wondering whether to get it or not. I think maybe not, based on the mixed reviews of the instructions.

necessity is the mother yadayada

go dead center on both sides and take a small seam.
go dead center on both sides and add a small extension
Looks like you planned it all along

go a little up or below center and do one of the above.
Fools the eye, don't point it out
Life is short then you die, get 'er done.

we went over a few things, the instructor and i. i am an intermediate quilter, and really pretty careful and accurate most of the time.

she couldn't see anything out of whack in what i brought to her, and she watched me sew and didn't have anything to add. the math adds up in the pattern. maybe it's just one of those things. i really don't know what else to think.

the author is emphatic about accuracy. i have measured every single seam and cut. i am just kind of done with it, but am loathe to give up. the fabrics are beautiful...

it might just end up being different and less than i wanted it to be. i don't know.

aileen

I'd go with it ending up different. Pretend that is how you wanted it all along... Honestly, it sounds like you have given it you best shot. You have worked hard and maybe it is now just time to finish it, any way you can. Only you will really know it isn't quite like you thought it would be. And, I too blame it on the pattern.

Dina

I remember a long time ago someone saying those were difficult patterns because of all the long skinny strips which are pieced. Time to walk away from it for a while, methinks. Give yourself a break. Do something else for now, something fun! Return to it with refreshed eyes when you are ready.

OH, I agree with Tartan. Remember the old saying when there are lemons, make Lemonade !! Wish you would post the blocks. Maybe one of us could help you twik the pattern. Frank Wright made some mistakes in his time. He wasn't perfect either. I am surprised that the instructor wasn't able to find out where the problem is. Hang in there. Tomorrow will bring a whole new day !! :)

i just returned to it after leaving it in the box for more than a month! ha!

aileen

It also might be different and MORE than you wanted it to be. Don't you really prefer to have it be your design anyway? froggyintexas

I was working on quilt several years ago and could not get a segment to work. I put it away. I came back to it at least 2 years later and it was so obvious what I was doing wrong. Maybe you just need to put it down for awhile. I am not suggesting you wait as long as I did. Lol. I hope it works out for you. Gina

Where do you live? Maybe one of us lives close enough to get together with you and see if two brains are better than one. Just a thought.

Did you do a seam allowance test? It really isn't about the *actual* seam allowance. It's what your piece measures on top after it's sewn in. Cut three strips 1.5 inches wide by about 3 or 4 inches long and sew them together on the long side. Press and then measure the center piece on the right side and if it doesn't measure 1 inch you need to adjust your seam allowance or your pressing technique.

i give up. it's going back in the box.

i may draft an alternative to these little tiled pieces. if you want to try to help, it's the frank lloyd wright tree of life quilt.

i cannot for the life of me get those little tiny tiles to line up. or lie flat. or look like anything but a hot mess.

aileen

I feel your pain....this is what I went through with a quilt I was making. I also thought that all my cuts were perfect. A board member showed us her beautiful quilt made with the exact pattern. I finally said the heck with it. Made a whole different quilt with what I had cut. I will show a picture when I am ready. Good luck!

I just read a review of the quilt pattern book that this came from and interestingly, all the good reviews seemed to come from people who loved the book and are planning on making one of the quilts and all the bad reviews seemed to come from people who HAD tried to make a quilt from the book. I don't think it is you. Are all your pieces cut already? If not, maybe stop the frustration and use your material in another quilt or put it all together and enjoy your wonderful fabrics and forget that it is a "Frank Lloyd Wright" quilt. Would love to see pics!

I think you will figure out YOUR interpretation...and you can say you were inspired by Frank. On YOUR timeline..and not another word about not lining up. You MEANT it to be that way. You are a fabric artist and you took artistic liberties!

I think this quilt could spoil quilting for you forever. Put the darn thing away. Do a fun, happy quilt for a child, come back to it. If it isn't clear what is wrong, put a flange in and do the border and don't line it up. OR, donate it to Goodwill - this is probably what I would do.

I feel your pain on this one. When I first started quilting (self taught) less than 10 years ago, my daughter picked out a beautiful queen sized quilt from a book I had. Each block consisted of 25 pieces if I remember correctly. I wracked my brains because it wasn't going together after the first trimming. The book was misprinted with the measurements for that part. A cable tech actually helped me solve the mystery (his ex was a quilter). Quilt turned out awesome.

I have that book and am planning on starting one of the quilts. Do you mind telling me which one you were working on? I was planning on doing, I believe it's called, the Ennis House quilt. Thanks!!

Best advice of all right here. Walk away, come back to this another time. Sometimes we just need to take a break from something, and then you go back and it all comes together. I wish you the best of luck on this project. I know you can finish it, just maybe not today, in a month or so : )

Great advice !!!

I can certainly relate to what you are experiencing. All patterns are just not exactly correct. The block I'm making at present is comprised of many pieces and I've measured down to the last thread. I've starched, pressed, prayed and when I went to put one unit together it quite obviously was going to be too small to fit with the rest of the units. So I made the decision to change one HST's size and voila it worked. The pattern is one I will definitely make again, but I've made notes like crazy. So I guess what I'm finally getting around to saying is, blame the pattern. Don't beat yourself up, the designers of patterns are only human - granted they have talent, but they can make mistakes too.

Life is too short to get that frustrated and upset while working on something that should be a happy experience. I vote for sewing it all together quickly...without regard for the matching thingy, giving the project to your quilting buddy to take care of( for an undetermined length of time and place...LOL ), or just taking the pieces you already cut out and turn them into a scrap quilt.

As a last resort did you or your instructor go to the site of the pattern and search for "Corrections". There's one very popular web site ( although don't think I'm allowed to say who's) that has enough corrections to her numerous patterns to choke a horse! GOOD LUCK!

Ditto here! Like some recipes passed down from Grandma, there's always that secret ingredient that always remains a secret. In quilting just one tiny secret step.

I almost bought that book and I think I am glad now that I didn't.

I hope you have better luck if you continue your quilt. I do love the quilts - just love FLW.

Have you tried using elmers washable glue stick to match points up before you sew? I've never made a quilt as intricate as the one you're making, so can't say whether it will help you or not. But it's cheap and you really won't be any worse off if it doesn't work than you are now, so it's worth a try.

I made a quilt for my DGD that, no matter what I did, never matched up. I named it "The quilt from hell". I think she liked the name more than the quilt!

I found after many frustrating failures that sometime it is because of how the fabric is cut, straight grain of biased. Then again....

I had this happen with a pattern once. The designer claimed that the pattern was accurate and people have used it without problem. So I checked the pattern that was all triangles and found out that the angles were off a couple of degrees. I figured that everyone else thought that the bias on the triangles caused it not to go together right. So it still could be your pattern.

This is indeed good advice! When I was in graduate school, I took a required math class. I'm fairly smart, but math has always been my weak spot. I had a lot of trouble with it, but usually 'got it' after a while. In grad school, any grade below a B was considered a failure, so I had to do well in the class.

One type of problem was giving me fits. It just wouldn't fit in my brain! There was a guy in the class - a math whiz - who offered to help me. We spent about 2 hours trying to pound that little bit of math into my brain. Finally, I said to him, "If I haven't gotten it by now, I never will." and called it quits.

Driving home I had a very strange experience. I actually felt the world move just a bit - no exaggeration, I really felt movement (Note that no earthquake was reported in the area), and my brain flooded with understanding for that particular bit of math!

I was absolutely delighted, thrilled and excited! When I got home, I told DH what happened, then called my friend to tell him what happened! Best of all, the next day I passed the test! God got a huge thank you for that one!

Sometimes we just have to get out of our own way and let our brain work on a problem in the background.

I am also working on a FLW quilt that I hope will be my husbands' birthday present. He loves FLW architecture. I have never seen such a pattern and ever would have bought it if I could have previewed it. The width and quantity of several cut sections aren't given, though they can be determined by looking ahead (at least I hope they can because that's what I'm doing). Also, none of the illustrations have measurements and the direction don't have dimensions of component blocks. What a disappointment.

i looked at it again this morning. there are a couple of problems, and they are probably due to the combination of my skills and the machines i am using, though between the 3 you would think one could do this kind of work. maybe not.

the seams matches are pulling the fabric. despite very careful pressing, when i come to a three seam intersection, it is either stretching the black piping or pulling the .75" square out of whack. then when i go to join them up the lines look wonky enough to be noticeable.

one or two threads off is making a huge difference when lining up these little tiny pieces. that would be my fault, but i have been as accurate in my stitching as i can right now. i think what i'm going to do is get rid of these tiny stained glass panel pieces and run the colours in longer stretches instead.

if you are a very, very precise quilter, probably with some experience doing miniature quilts, these won't be a problem for you. the criticisms of the pattern hold true. because she doesn't provide finished dimensions for elements, you either have to do the math work ahead or follow her directions without deviation.

i think my finished product will be okay, but i took this project on to help me improve accuracy and precision. i'm just not ready for it yet i guess and mabe i won't ever be. but you're right - no project should cause this level of unhappiness. i'm going to make the pattern adjustments, swallow my disappointment in myself and move on.

the chevrons went together beautifully. and i suspect the whole quilt will look fine. i'm always going to know what's missing, but no one else will. and that's okay too.

aileen

I would put it away for a few days and then come back to work on it. Sometimes if you take a break from the quilt you are working on and come back to work on it again it seem to go together better.

I was going to suggest the same thing..couldn't hurt..

i am not going to attempt another set of these tiles, opting for long thin coloured strips that will echo the colours in the chevrons. four sets, same results? done.

no one will know the quilt was supposed to have these extraordinary little panels. i loved them, but maybe in a few years i'll have figured it out. right now i want it done instead :)

thanks for all your help!

aileen

I'm so happy you have worked this through. You might consider cutting the paper pieces and fitting them together. It's a shame there are so many problems with the patterns. They are quite striking. Knock this one off my todo list. I get frustrated enough with easy patterns....:) Joyce in DE

Could you possibly do it with paper piecing?

Deb