Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Calling all "Swooners"

Hi ya'll!

Oops, my Southern is showing. (Grin)


Y'all don't mind, do ya?  (Y'all know, of course, that I look just like that. Seriously.)

I have a question, and I'm hoping that some of you can help me!

Recently I confided to you that I'm working on a Swoon quilt for my sweet daughter. I showed you a block that was made with a technique that eliminated some of the seams in one area of the block.


Cool!

But the block turns out to be 16 inches finished. 

Not cool.

When I got finished patting and talking to my fabrics:


I was perusing the pattern. You do that, don't you? I mean, we can't always piece and quilt by the seat of our pants....sometimes we get asked to follow a pattern, and we. must. comply.  (Wink)

So, here is my dilemma.  The Swoon blocks are supposed to be about 24 inches --- not 16. (I see a 16 inch pillow top in that block's future, don't you?)

I usually add a smidge (that's a very technical term, you understand. Very precise. Padsworth, quit frowning at me.) to my squares when I make half square triangles. Then I draw my line down the middle and stitch on both sides, like I have shown here before.

The designer of the Swoon, Camille, is super gracious and answered my email very quickly, saying that she thought the fat quarters would allow me to increase the size of my cut squares --- OK, no problem there.

But I forgot to ask Camille what size to square the completed HSTs to!!!  Halp!  Can some of you help me out?


What size do YOU square them up to? If I can't make certain of what I need to do, I will be forced to make a sample block with muslin and scraps.....not as much fun as these pretty fabrics! (Gulp.)

I sure would appreciate some input from all of you!

Love,


11 comments:

  1. i can mock up a block in eq and tell you how to cut any block size you want.

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  2. Looks like you used a 2.5" unfinished for most of your block sections - if you go to 3.5" you will get the larger block.

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  3. What Vroomans said....it looks like an 8x8 "grid" you are working with - each section would be 3" (3-1/2" cut) - Your HST will also finish 3" - (3-1/2" trimmed up)....it's going to be wonderful!!!!

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  4. I think Sharon is right - 3.5" unfinished. It appears to break into 8 squares in both directions and if you want it to be 24" I would divide that by 8 which gives you 3" finished.

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  5. Oh I did wonder about the size in the tutorial you were following at the start! Glad the clever people in the comments before mine have figured it out.

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  6. For a 24" block that has 8 units across, 24 divided by 8 equals 3. So each unit should finish at 3" (3 1/2") unfinished. Hope that makes since.

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  7. There is a math formula for that but I can not remember it! If I was using a half square ruler, I would cut a 3.5 strip to make 3 inch finished triangles.

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  8. Oh I hope all of this is helping you out! I have no advice to give :( I'm terrible at math lol.

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  9. I am no good at math...yep...Padworth is frowning at me now.

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  10. Looks like you received lots of help to your question. I just wanted to pop in to tell you your fabrics are wonderful...you will have a gorgeous quilt using these!

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  11. What everyone else said, 3.5" trimmed.

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