Mimmis57

Here's my question- I'm making a flannel quilt using the tradewinds pattern but am having a lot of trouble. I've prewashed and dried it twice before using, used a walking foot and used a 1/2" seam allowance but where the seams come together; oh boy. There are so many layers of fabric and soooo much bulk. I have big bumps at the join. If anyone has any suggestions I'll be grateful. I'm thinking I may have used the wrong pattern. Maybe I should have used a simpler pattern?

feline fanatic

You have 8 points coming together in the center of each square. No matter what fabric you use that is a lot of bulk but flannel is definitely making a difficult situation harder. I recommend that when you join the two triangle units to make the square press your seams open and then when you join the four squares to make your block you open up the center intersecting seams like demonstrated in this tutorial

http://www.greenfairyquiltsblog.com/...lat-seams.html

ManiacQuilter2

Do you mean the Cozy quilt shop pattern?? I just recently made that pattern with batiks and didn't have much of a problem. Have you thought of sashing between the blocks to eliminate some of the bulk??

Mimmis57

No. It's called tradewinds.

NJ Quilter

Regardless of fabric type, with that many seams coming together, I'd press as many seams open as possible to reduce bulk. I do that 99% of the time in my piecing anyhow as I feel it results in a much flatter block.

Mimmis57

I tried pressing open but there are still a lot of seams coming together in the middle so it just won't lie flat so me seams are off by as much as 1/2". I might take maniac quilter 2's idea and try sashing them and see if that helps.