Leo’s Mane Sew Along

Saturday 8 September 2012

Grandmother's Choice- Amethyst

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.

3 comments:

  1. 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!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad 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?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I laughed out loud for real reading this blog post... Goldilocks! Too funny!
    I am scared of this block and have been plotting how I can make it without templates :)
    Your's is fabulous!

    ReplyDelete

I love reading all your comments, and am grateful for each one. I try very hard to answer them all, but lately I haven’t quite been able to answer all of them.