momsbusy

Many people have given you great advice regarding accuracy in cutting and sewing. In order to ensure good seam alignment, I pin the intersections using very skinny pins. Also, try to let your feed dogs on your machine feed your fabric. I have stretched blocks by pulling my fabric. You might find it helpful to check out the quilting classes on Craftsy. Some of them are free. By the way, my first quilts were not perfect, but they are still worthy in my eyes. Just like everything else, practice makes perfect.

klswift

wonderful that you are learning to quilt - you can have many, many happy times to follow. But, I'm sorry that you started with such an exacting pattern. There are so many corners that have to match. When you are starting, it is so easy to be off just the slightest from your 1/4" seams and that little bit grows with each piece. It will get better with practice. If possible, can you work on a different project for a bit? I suggest looking up a split rail pattern. This will give you practice with your seams but it can be a bit forgiving while you are learning. You could use the rectangles from this project or start fresh. Perhaps a small lap size quilt - use 2 1/2" strips (4 will finish to 8" blocks). When you sew the WOF make sure you alternate the direction of sewing to stop a 'bend'. You should get 4 or 5 blocks per strip, so you would only need to make 4 or 5 sets. This could be a quick and easy moral booster for you while giving you a lot of practice with your seams. Just remember to keep it fun - we all have a UFO that we will never finifh because it became work and was no longer a fun project.

ManThreads

Thank you all for the great advice and encouragement!

Looking back over everyone's comments, I can see quite a few tricks and tips that will surely help me in the future.

While I do want to get this first quilt finished and wanted to work on it this weekend, I think the best option right now is to step away and work on some other minor projects until I can build my confidence back up.

I have done quite a few leather projects by hand, but I may try my luck with machine sewing my leather projects and see how that turns out for me. Those types of projects probably fall outside of this board, but if you are all interested I can share some of them as well.

Regards,
Steve

bearisgray

did you wash your fabrics before cutting them?

If not, some fabrics shrink if/ when they are steam pressed.

Bree123

I saw an art quilt once that was made with leather patchwork. It was so incredibly beautiful. Perhaps if you are more comfortable working with leather, you might try that. Just cut a bunch of 4.5" or 6.5" squares -- all the same -- and start piecing them together. Since you're more familiar with the grain of the leather & cutting it, all you would need to focus on learning is the piecing. A cheap solution to get that "perfect" 1/4" seam is to measure from your needle to the right 1/4" and either put a masking tape line or tape 4-5 Post-Its. With a patchwork quilt, you can still have a nice looking quilt even if your seams don't match up perfectly.

Jeanette Frantz

My first full-sized quilt was a whole cloth quilt (with embroidery) so I didn't face that. I assembled some embroidery blocks my 88 year old Aunt had embroidered, and that was a struggle in of itself! Talk about being off -- see, my Aunt knew exactly what she was going to do with the blocks -- I didn't know her intentions, but I assembled the embroidered blocks (state flower blocks) and made a quilt top! Don't give up -- unless one is an absolute genius, the first quilt(s) can be a struggle! Keep on trying!

Jeanette

zozee

Welcome and keep at it! All good advice here.

One ne thing I didn't see mentioned: sometimes precuts are miscut before shipping. Measure what you have received and see if they're accurate. A lot of us much prefer to cut our own fabric for quality control (and it's usually cheaper).

ruby2shoes

So much good advice here. With each quilt I make I come across a new problem; some I can fix, some I can't, but when each quilt is finally finished I can look back at it and see where my improvements are starting to seep in to my construction technique! It's a learning experience and I now regard those errors as milestone points where I found a way to improve my craft for the next quilt. They're all milestones for me......reminding me of my quilting journey. Chin up....forge onward good sir!!!!!

maviskw

[QUOTE=madamekelly;7375591] As you sew them the edge that does not stretch will be against other edges that do not stretch, and the stretchy edges will be sewed to each other.

I try to do just the opposite. I try to sew a not stretchy edge to a stretchy edge. That way, everything is more stable. I was given a box of large triangles cut off the corners of fitted bed sheets. They were waste to the factory that sold the sheets. I sewed them together straight edge to bias edge and made about a dozen pillowcases. If there were bias sewn to bias, that seam would sure open when the bias was stretched.

thelazyquilter

Steve, Deep breath. Remember this is suppose to be fun. Your first quilt will be beautiful because it is your first quilt. Half the fun of quilting is constantly improving with each project. What fun would it be is we were all perfect. Beginners usually struggle with the 1/4 seam. The seam has to be pretty on point. My advice is to buy a 1/4 inch foot and a walking foot. Go on youtube and check out some videos. All of us quilters are constantly chasing the perfect 1/4 inch seam so you are not alone.