Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
 

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In a classic case of “jeez, this worked better in my head,” I’m having a tad of trouble stitching the latest quilt together. It’s a spool block pattern with sashing. Now, in general I have trouble with the whole concept of which seams to sew in which order to make sure that everything nests together nicely. It takes a lot of thought and diagramming and writing things out in order to not get confused and wind up whimpering in a pile of blocks, seams going every which way.

But this pattern is so simple. I thought, well, I’ll just sew one border rectangle to each square to get a jump on the borders. If I hadn’t done that, I could be running merrily along sewing the blocks in rows and then adding rows of sashing, and everything would be nicely nesting and locking up and easy to press flat. But nooo. No, the trick is that the blocks are set turned every other one. So the presewn sashing doesn’t always match up neatly. And I started sewing the rows together without taking a hard look at it first, so the first few rows were a disaster. Now that I am committed, I’ve had to figure out how to put the sashing on so that only a few seam allowances have to be clipped.

So, not quite such a bad idea as when I got the spider out of my iron, but still not good. Next time I’ll take a little longer to figure out the seam order, no matter how confused it makes me. Then sewing the blocks together will be a lot more fun. What have other folks done recently that you’ve thought better of? Please share!

You were trying to sew the rows up and down... When doing an 'on point' quilt you still need to sew the rows as normal, just have different lengths to the rows and end with a triangle on each end. Stop and look at your picture and you will see the 'rows' you need to stitch, add triangles then the between the row sashing...

On the Orca quilt the blocks share a block. I merrily sewed a block to each side, like you thinking I was saving myself time. Well of course, I should have sewn the shared block only on one side, then joined them. Lots of unsewing. We all have "good ideas".

Love the spider in the iron story!!!!

Laughed so much at the bug in the iron link that my DH had me read it to him. We both had a chuckle.
Annie

like the spider and iron story!

Your spider in the iron story was priceless!

*grin* The dumbest moves always make the best stories! :o

I'm looking for just that spool block pattern. Where can I find a copy of it? I have an old soiled antique quilt that I just love that is made from that pattern. Would love to make one like it.
Brenda in Bama

LOL!!! I hope none of your neighbors saw you outside twirling with an iron in your hand! ("Look, Ethel! Look at what that crazy woman next door is doing now!")

"LOL!!! I hope none of your neighbors saw you outside twirling with an iron in your hand! ("Look, Ethel! Look at what that crazy woman next door is doing now!") "

I had the same thought! Heehee

When I'm piecing an "on-point" top together, I lay it out on my bed and treat the sashing pieces the same as the blocks. You will have narrow rows (sashing) and wide rows (blocks). The seams run diagonally instead of vertically.

*Grin* Yeah, I was worried about the neighbors at the time; but they were all pretty nice people.

mama's place, I didn't really use a pattern. Quilter's Cache has a good tutorial on spool blocks, though they are a different size than these. On the one above, everything is two inches wide: the center squares are two inches, the wedges and sashing the same. If you want that look at a different size, just make sure everything is whatever measurement you choose

happyquiltmom, you expressed very succinctly what I should have done. Trying to be smart I was dumb!

The spider-in-the-iron story is priceless!

When I first saw your spool quilt layout I thought the grey of the blanket the blocks are resting on was the sashing - and very pretty it would be (but I like grey).

I think your quilt is going to look lovely when it is done. (Sorry, can't help with the seam dilemma - my brain has frozen on the geometry for the moment!)

Thanks for the info. I copied the pages from quilterscache and will try that.
About your quilt, love those colors!! My old quilt has the blocks just joined together, no sashing and turned so that they alternate directions. It's mostly in neutrals, but it just works so well. Love it. If I ever get the nerve to try posting pics, I'll show it.
Brenda in Bama