Saturday, September 19, 2015

Scrappy Saturday

Just a wee bit of orange sewing has been going on here this week. A few Alamo stars were made as leader-ender blocks, and a couple of pumpkin seeds were hand stitched. I am using up some small pieces of orange left over from my first scrap squad quiltTo see what the rainbow scrappers are accomplishing, hop over to the Saturday link up. Angela has a draw going on to win a bundle of Vicki's yummy hand dyed fabric. (I won a package of her fabric last year and loved it - you can see the quilt I made here)
The majority of my sewing time this week has been focused on finishing my next scrap squad quilt, which will be posted on Friday on the Quiltmaker blog
I am struggling with some perfectionistic tendencies about these seam joins. This just does not make me happy. Only 1 of the 4 HST blocks are accurately positioned at this join, in spite of using a thousand pins.  Sheesh ....that's a 25% success rate.  And that is how it's going overall with the piecing of these blocks. I know I can do better than that, but it's these darn bias triangle edges that are kicking my butt! 
Okay... enough complaining, gotta get back to "work"!

18 comments:

scraphappy said...

Glad you are finding some slow stitching time too. Having a deadline really can make all those quilting gremlins come out to play. Hopefully the rest will go more smoothly. If not, maybe those less than perfect points can hide around the edges. In the end, you are probably the only one who will know.

Deb @ Frugal Little Bungalow said...

CLOSE YOUR PERFECTIONIST "TAB" :) :) :)

Kathy's A Quilter said...

Ditto what Deb said! Obsess less and enjoy more.

Mary said...

Sorry the Bias is hindering your success. Time out for slow stitching could help the stress. Maybe you need some Chocolate, too!

Lesley said...

I liked what Deb says. Close the tab, and maybe I'll try to do the same. I made a bunch of HST blocks today and after all my years of sewing and quilting, they are far from perfect, so I am closing the tab too!

The Joyful Quilter said...

Your ORANGE Peel block is looking good... and I see that great minds think alike. My next photo was going to be a shot in front of today's ORANGE page from Angela!! You beat me to it, so I suppose I'll have to think of something else.

Julierose said...

Don;t let perfectionism take root; life is just too short--it's fine just the way it is....hugs, (from an "imperfectionista" gal) hugs, Julierose

Ivani said...

The bias is always there in HTS to make us remember that only God is perfect. So, enjoy the precess.

kdduncan said...

Ditch the pins.

Kate said...

Hope you solve the mystery of the off center points. Some fabrics are just tough to work with when you make pinwheels.

Käthe said...

Oh das ist ja ärgerlich mit den Mittelnähten. Nicht ärgern, auftrennen und noch mal nähen.
Viel Erfolg und liebe Grüße
Käthe

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

I use Triangulations to make my HST's. They come out the correct size every time, and, I don't have to deal with bias, since I'm paper piecing (stabilizes the fabric).

ES said...

Don't loose any sleep about perfect points! Don't stop enjoying the sewing! Good enough, is good enough :)

Maria said...

I find pinwheels hard to get right sew just enjoy the process.

Mystic Quilter said...

I began to spray starch the fabric if it was KF Collective, because they are quite fine I found they stretched on the bias, the starch idea seems to have helped.

Bees Knees Granny said...

For HST's, I sew the bias seams before cutting the squares apart, because the weave of the fabric helps stabilize the bias. I use a walking foot for piecing. If pins cannot be avoided, I use the thinnest ones I can find: Dritz "ultra" fine glasshead pins. I do not use a "wooden iron" or fingerpress a bias seam, to avoid stretching. I use Eleanor Burns' method of twirling the seam allowances at the center of the pinwheel. Good luck! Cwoosley12@yahoo.com

gayle said...

Lots of good advice here! Especially ditching the pins.
And if all else fails, use a Sharpie in as close a matching color as you can find. Srsly. 8)

Sheila said...

After quilting and a go in the washer and dryer, most everything is forgiven. Don't sweat it.
Personally, I try to avoid making this block : )