Here is this week's Grandmother's Choice block, called
Amethyst. I must confess to a bit of nervous trepidation when I saw this one. Not because of the "Y" seams, but because of the need to print off templates. To say that our printer and I have a love/hate relationship would be kind. It took me longer to print this than to sew it. The first copy came out the wrong size. So I tried changing the size, only to get a message that the printer wasn't responding. So, I had to turn it off, go through all the start up stuff, before I could print. I'd changed the size to print, and that one came out to big. I'm starting to sound like Goldilocks here. So, I decreased the size, tried to print it, and got the non-responding printer message again. Grrrrrrr.............. That meant turning it off, turning it back on and going through the start up sequence again. By this time I was beginning to wonder if it would get done, and if I would have the patience to sew it once it got printed. But, it printed, and came out the right size. Then I could sew it up, and here it is. It took a bit of thought to figure out the best way to do it, and away I went. It wasn't a perfect 8 1/2 inches square when it was done, but an 8 1/2 inch square drawn on my ironing board cover, some straight pins and some steam for blocking fixed that. Two down, 47 to go.
I figured out the problem. When I printed the template (and cut the center square from the template, too) from EQ7, based on an 8" finished block, it stitched to 8.5" perfectly. I think what was happening was she was getting the center block measurement from the "rotary cutting" preview ... and if you leave the default 1/8" rounding, it makes that block 3-3/8" square. When you change the rounding to 1/16", it changes the block size to 3-5/16" (1/16" smaller). When you print the block for template, however, it doesn't need to round up or down, it just makes the shape the perfect size for whatever your finished block is. I think yours looks terrific -- I'd never done anything from a template before either -- I'm glad I'm working outside my comfort level!!! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you got it to work out! I was doing mine in 4.5 inches and just drew it directly onto freezer paper. Worked like a charm. Great looking block. Are you starting to worry about what is next when week 2 already needed templates and set in seams?
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud for real reading this blog post... Goldilocks! Too funny!
ReplyDeleteI am scared of this block and have been plotting how I can make it without templates :)
Your's is fabulous!