Saturday, April 21, 2012

Creating rows and friendly bias's

I really thought I had made a mistake and even conferred with another quilter. I read the instruction card for the directions to making this block and it called for making a larger square and cutting it into 1/4 square triangles to make the connecting pieces for these blocks. Well when cutting them you end up with bias edges on the outside of the triangles. So they looked wonky to me. I asked Wanda if this was right. She agreed that the straight of the grain maybe would make them a more sturdy block. Well I had then cut out so I decided I would sew 5 blocks together in a row and I was surprised that the bias behaved as well as it did. With all the bias edges on these wedges you need a bias edge to make the block pull into place.  
 So many variables are coming together in one spot and the bias edge in the hourglass section make it ease into place without pulling against it's neighbor. Bias edges can be your friend. Thank you Wanda for making the suggestion to use them and steam the seams when completed.
Sometimes asking another quilter and sounding off on your concerns helps. The designer of this ruler must have had lots of experience working with this design. Hence that is why she has a ruler and written the directions. Remember the rule if all else fails read the directions. The designer is Marilyn Doheny and the name of the ruler is 45* Kaleidoscope Wedge Ruler. She gives you all the directions on the back of the ruler to make this quilt block. I changed the pattern by making it all scrappy. I have three rows sewn together out of 7 and I will take more pictures when I get the top completed. Chris  

1 comment:

Katie M. said...

when I know I'm going to have bias edges, I starch the dickens out of the fabric!