Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Aurifil March DOM

Aurifil DOM block


The Aurifil block for March is called "Lisbon Tile". It is a paper pieced pattern by designer Jo Avery  from Scotland. It's been a while since I did some paper piecing, so I was really looking forward to starting this month's block. 








I try to chain piece as much as is possible with paper piecing. With this block having 4 quadrants, I sewed the same section consecutively on the 4 blocks. It was so fun to enjoy some paper piecing again! 


Here is the first quadrant finished.
I used 5 fabrics... a white, a black, and 3 teals.




What took me the most time with this month's block (the pattern was posted March 15th) was my inability to get the pattern to print out at the correct size.
February and March DOM blocks
Printing a pattern from a computer website rarely goes well for me, and I was unable to resize the block to get it to print the pattern at the correct size.  I even tried downloading the pattern to a USB stick and printing it at Staples. It still didn't print out the correct size. I also tried to resize it on the photocopier which made it more wonky and not square. 
WAY TOO FRUSTRATING!
I briefly considered redrafting my own pattern to the correct size using the old fashioned pencil, ruler and paper method, but considering how much time I had already spent on this block and didn't even have a pattern yet, I just decided to go ahead and sew it as it was. My block measures 11 3/4” instead of the desired 12 1/2”. As you can see, it's not even close to the size of the February block. Oh well, it turned out great and was lots of fun to sew, and I'll have to fix the size problem with sashing or some other kind of magical solution when it's time to put the blocks together!
You can see more finished blocks here.

Addendum... my friend Jackie just printed out the block pattern without difficulty, so it's clearly an issue of my lack of technological finesse :)

9 comments:

Marti said...

I hate it when that happens. Did you print to size or original? Other than that, I don't know how to change the size of anything printed. Sounds like you went above and beyond to try to get it printed though.
The block is really pretty. Was it difficult?

Chris said...

If the pattern is from Scotland, maybe you should try telling the printer to do it on A4 instead of the usual letter size we use. This is a whole new size.
Your block does look amazing in those colours.

Needled Mom said...

That is a gorgeous block. Fabulous colors.

AnnieO said...

Well how terrifically annoying not to have the right size printed! Beautiful block, though!

piecefulwendy said...

Your block is fantastic, even if it didn't come out the correct size! Can you add some background strips to make it the right size? I would be frustrated with the printing woes too.

Louise said...

It's a really neat block, and looks great in your fabrics! I'm sorry it won't play well with the others. Maybe you can make a nice mini or a pillow with it. I had never thought about the problem with the printing not being true to size.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Great block and colors. Most of the time I can get my patterns to print properly, but, not always. Oh well, computers and I have a 'hate/hate' relationship most of the time.

Jackie J said...

Well, I had the same issue as you did when I downloaded a pattern. I had click the box 'fit to page' and which made my pattern smaller. So this could be the same problem as you have or it could be on your printer where you have click 'fit to page'. Anyway, I love the coulours your using to make your blocks.

Kate said...

It's a beautiful block! I've not had good luck printing patterns from web pages either, I usually end up drafting my own in EQ.