Friday, December 12, 2008

Ahh...the joys of folk art quilting...

As Shasta said in her comment. That's exactly it. Mistakes become incorporated into the design. Now I certainly DO NOT profess to be any sort of expert on these type quilts, or this particular quilt. All I merely wanted to do was have fun making my quilt while sharing my experiences along the way. How I made each block, what worked, what frustrated me, what drove me nuts...and most of all, how I solved all the boo-boo's.

I'll also say that I almost did not write this post either because I really didn't want to upset or scare anybody any further by announcing that my pieces weren't fitting together. This is just how mine turned out. Not everyones may do this! Plus...It's going to be solved so that you will never know it ever WAS an issue!

By now you know that I am a serious Cheri fan. I have one of those plastic magazine holders in my craft closet stuffed! with all my little manila brown envelopes, but sometimes the measurements can be a tiny bit iffy. On a small wall hanging I work around any instances of that and none the wiser. But on a big quilt like a sampler that you've already sewn into sections it can get a little hairy. So a tip for you...don't! Seriously, I might have gone back to having the single blocks if I *could* go back.

Actually truth is I will most assuredly be taking out my trusty graph paper and graphing out the ABC sampler sections just to make sure it all works out. Buggy Barn might do that for me...they did just that for the first section!! We got a lovely drawn out **measured** drawing in the mail from BB of how the top would work out! How cool!

So back to working...one thing that always seems to trip me up are the template sections. As Cheri states...template pieces do not include seam allowance (s/a). Well sometimes they need a s/a around the edge and sometimes they don't. It hasn't turned out consistent for me. The USA did... the basket was perfect... the flag under the eagle needed s/a on the top and bottom, but couldn't have s/a on the sides or it wouldn't have fit for me.

This above is what I saw when I laid out my two halves of the bottom section. First I knew I needed to connect the lower right angel/ oakleaf/bird to the top with the template stars and angel and bird the in vase thingy. It should have lined up perfectly. You'll notice it didn't quite. No biggie, sew on a strip and be happy. Once I sewed that seam, I could turn over and sew the remainder of the flag seam. Second issue came to light. The flag is supposed to be the same length as the right side section. I've measured everything and all the backgrounds and pieces are all the correct size. I suspect again that the culprits are the flying geese in the center, but mostly the star blocks. I wondered when making them, but they matched up to the lower parts and fit together beautifully then so I never gave it a thought. Then I laid out the left section. Problem..too short. In fact the right section in Cheri's quilt has a strip sewn on the bottom to make it the correct size to match up to the left side. Well my left side as you can see is shorter without.

**Now again, You may never face any of these issues, but I did and this is how I plan to solve them and what you have to consider when doing so*** Mostly, how does adding strips effect the size as it pertains to the other sections. Length is no big deal. Width however is a big deal especially since I have the top section totally completed. Before I sewed this I laid it out as you see below and pinned the other two top sections over it to make sure they fit. They do fit luckily. Rather than having all these strips at the bottom, I'll shift the sections like below.

I plan to make a line of hst's to fill the gap over the snails' trails and put a small section under the flag. I think it will look just fine. I haven't a clue if I did anything different than the pattern or not but it doesn't matter at this point. Notice I did not say "wrong". Nothing in folkart is wrong in my eyes. This makes this quilt mine. I'm happy with it now, so I'll be thrilled when the tops done...extra sections and all.

11 comments:

Red Geranium Cottage said...

It's coming along quite nicely I might say! I love it.

Thimbleanna said...

I love your attitude -- I completely agree -- nothing is "wrong" in folkart!

Carol said...

You've got it!!! You're so right...nothing is wrong in primitive folkart...Your quilt will be YOURS! It's wonderful...great solution.

canquilt said...

It looks great. This is why it is called Patchwork.

Karen said...

Thanks for the heads up about the problem getting the parts together. I think you have a good plan for solving it.

antique quilter said...

thanks for bringing this to our attention, I will be starting this quilt soon I have my bom sitting right here waiting for me to start.
I will be on the watch to make sure I remember the s/a!
but in reality this is what folk art is about improvising! right?
LOL
LOOKS WONDERFUL so far...
hope you weren't too frustrated :)
Kathie

MARCIE said...

You are so right! Folkart is the key word. Cheri's directions are sketchy at best. You do a great job of assembly I think!

Lenna Green of Stitching Cow said...

I think it is wonderful that you have shared this with everyone. Most patchworking problems can be solved it's important to be flexible and not to get too hung up on perfection. The fun is in the journey. I know your quilt will be wonderful.
PS Thanks too for commenting on my blog re my Christmas patterns, much appreciated.
Warmly Lenna

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your informative post--I will keep this in mind when I finally start the ABC quilt. You are so right--the changes will make it your quilt! It's coming out SO nice!!

Patti said...

Looks like a perfect solution to me! I've collected many of Cheri's patterns but have yet to do one. Maybe this coming year! Anyway, I find the same is true of Jan Patek's large quilts. She presents a full diagram on how to set things together - with the measurements marked on each part. That catch is she never checks her math, and I've learned the hard way that she literally can't do arithmetic. I've learned to add up the measurements in the drawing to make sure the parts actually equal the whole - the strip sewed to a section for example. I think I've found mistakes in the math in every large quilt I've done. When I didn't discover this until the parts were done I did something like you've done - but hating it every minute. It would have been so easy for her to hand the pattern to someone else and say "check my math".

I just love seeing these on everyone's blog. I wanted to do this one so badly, but just couldn't justify spending the money.

marguerittechiffons said...

Très très joli .j'aime beaucoup .:)