Monday, August 10, 2009

Pondering

hand sewn and fairly square
Machine sewn...and sewn wrong but seems to be square...why?!


OK So I saw Julia and Julie yesterday...great show...and decided i needed to ponder....what on earth am i doing hand sewing the smaller le moyne star blocks(6-6 1/2"-not trimmed them down yet) i want to use in the corners of the quilts...OH WAIT I KNOW...trying to get the blocks to be square...for some reason some of them just refuse to be square...so i thought hand sew them....that usually cures all my ills with stars...but NO still wonky...machine sewn, ripped, hand sewn still wonky

and yes I cut them correctly...all the pieces are the right size the seams are the right size but still they are not all perfect...am i being anal? yes? have i ripped and resewn and ripped and resewn yes...Hand sewn ...not too bad

And then heres another oddity i discovered...i can actually piece the block faster by hand then by machine...or at least as fast...no its faster...why is that...arent machines supposed to set us free?? Its all that repeated ripping and resewing and ripping and resewing...sighhhh...will this quilt get done?? going on week three...isnt it week three? well it feels like week three:>

5 comments:

YankeeQuilter said...

I have always been faster hand piecing y seams than doing them on machine...also the more I rip out the wonkier it gets....

Diana said...

maybe all you need to do
is -- square it up --
or draw the outer seam line where it belongs, to sew it by hand to the rest.

lol

from the photos it looks like you have more than 1/4 inch seams left

Diana,
Anyone can do anything; one step at a time!

Kay Koeper Sorensen said...

When sewing each point to another point are you always sewing a bias edge to a straight grain edge?
Are you waiting to press the block until it is totally pieced?

Leah said...

pretty colors. that IS crazy that it takes longer to machine piece than hand piece. i dont know why it persists in being wonky - maybe thats the crazy quality of fabric! i always have that problem especially with pieces turned on an angle, even if Ive made sure to cut carefully. I just think the fabric distorts no matter what you try to do.

well, cant wait to see the finished product!!

Meg said...

Are you using templates for your hand piecing or are you rotary cutting? Kay is absolutely right - it helps stabilize your piecing to sew a bias edge to a straight grain edge....and I only finger press on blocks like this until I've completely pieced the block. With so much bias, it's very easy to press it out of square. I can piece quite a few things (except for things like nine-patches) faster than by hand.