📏WHEN BLOCKS ARE TOO SMALL-5 TIPS TO DEAL WITH THEM

i'd like to thank birch living for sponsoring this video are your blocks small or at a square or maybe you've collected blocks from a bunch of quilters and they are all slightly different sizes sewing small is a common problem for all quilters even experience psoas find that they so small when they quilt for the first time i have five ways to deal with small blocks so stick with me and i'll show you how to do it [Music] hi i'm karen brown of just get it done quilts i give you tips tricks and strategies to help you make the quilt that you want to make and if you like what you see please click that subscribe button who knew that making square blocks could be so hard when i started quilting it took me several years to figure out the tricks to sewing straight accurate cutting and ironing well so my blocks turned out to be the shape and size that they were supposed to be and just in case you are new to my channel i have already made a video series about those skills and i'll link them in the notes below even if you are precise in your execution shrinkage due to steam humidity and fraying can play havoc with your blocks here are five ways to deal with them [Music] if this is one of your first quilts you may be stressing over the imperfections but trust me a lot is forgiven once you get the binding on you are learning so much about quilting with every block you make color pattern symmetry a quarter inch seam and pressing that years from now you will look back fondly on this quilt and see how far your skills have grown this is my first finished quilt the seams are not straight my corners are not nesting and some blocks are even at a square but it turned out just fine so just sew the blocks together and let it be what it is measure all your blocks and see how much variance there is if it's just one or two outliers i would either remake the block or just simply incorporate it in the back but if there are a variety of sizes it might be best depending on your quilt pattern just to cut them all down to the size of your smallest block press your block first to be sure that it's flat then center your block on your cutting mat you might want to use washi or painters tape to mark your ruler at the new size just to keep it easy to see and rotate as you cut to keep it square if your ruler slips add first aid tape to the bottom to add grip it might be painful to cut down points or you might worry about points not lining up but we have a saying in quilting if you can't see it from a galloping horse at 50 feet don't worry about it and honestly it's true you can't see any of the mistakes in my first sampler quilt from here and the quilt will still be full of warmth and love even more experienced quilters have issues with squareness if you have many seams in the same block chances are it will be out of square it can also be due to small variations in your quarter inch seam compounding as the block is built and sometimes your attention just wanders a little if your variance is less than 1 8 of an inch then you can mark your sew line take a piece of template plastic or cardboard and cut it to the finished dimension of your blocks next center your block with the good size down and align the major lines in the block parallel to the lines on your cutting mat then take a marking pencil i like to use this one because it holds three different colored leads and i can choose the one that shows up the best then trace the finished dimensions on the back of the block now do the same for the block or pieces of sashing that it will be sewn to with the good sides together align the sew lines i like to pin them so that the blocks don't shift with the pinhead towards me i can easily pull them out while i sew set the seams with a hot iron then roll the seam over and finger press then press with a hot iron no one ever will know that it was small before we get to the next method let me tell you about birch living birch is a mattress in a box company that makes mattresses and sleep products that are stylish comfortable and environmentally friendly it comes rolled up in a box and it's super easy to set up yourself birch makes organic non-toxic mattresses right here in north america and recently introduced the birch luxe mattress made from organic cashmere new zealand wool fair trade cotton and a hundred percent natural latex mine was a king and i was amazed at how quickly it was ready to sleep on birch delivers straight to your door and it's free delivery in the usa with eight different layers the luxe mattress was made with breathability and support in mind the mattress has over 1 000 individually wrapped steel coils that cradle your body and limit motion transfer ordering online can be nerve-racking so with birch you get a hundred nights sleep trial as well as a 25-year warranty if you don't love it they'll pick it up from you and you'll get a full refund my husband and i both agree that after six months of sleeping on our birch mattress we are seeing the long-term benefits of a good night's sleep with none of the aches and pains that we used to have so much so that i've ordered one for my sister every birch mattress comes with two of their eco rest pillows made from recycled bottles they're breathable and better for the environment we love our birch mattress and i think you will too if you're looking for a new bed go check them out go to birchliving.com quilts or click on the link below to get 400 off your mattress and two free pillows [Music] sometimes it's easier just to make all your blocks bigger and then cut them down to the same size and these strips of fabric that you're adding are called coping strips and they work best if you alternate between blocks adding to the sides of your block and then to the top of one with to the top and then the sides of the other so that you don't need to worry about nesting seams to figure out which strip size to use first decide how large you want your blocks to be then find the size of your smallest block and subtract a quarter of an inch from all sides to find the finish size then the strips you will need will be the new block size minus the old block size divided by two plus a half inch for the seam allowance so for example i want this block to finish at eight inches and this block is five and a half which means it would finish at five so eight minus five is three divided by two is one and a half plus half inch for the seam allowance which means my strips should be two inches wide and since my sides are different lengths i cut them as i use them now this will work perfectly for your smallest block but your larger blocks will need to be trimmed down be sure to center the block first then rotate to cut now all the finished blocks are the same size note that your coping strips can be a different color or fabric with every block or different colors on each strip within each block there are no rules now sometimes you have blocks that are not only different sizes but more rectangles than square or have slanting sides this can be common when you have blocks made by a lot of different quilters who use different tools and might be of different abilities as well wonky coping strips can disguise these issues by tilting your blocks off square now you could use the same method as in the previous example by making your coping strips wider than turning your block and trimming however that method means that all your edges will be off grain which means they can be stretchy and prone to fraying and i dislike all the wastage so i prefer this method as in the last method to figure out what size strips to use you need to decide how big you want your finished blocks to be then find the size of your smallest block and subtract a quarter inch from all sides to find the finished size in this method you take the new block size minus the old block size and this time instead of dividing in half you add one and a half inches to the strip size so in my previous example eight minus five is three plus one and a half inches for four and a half inch strips find an intersection on your cutting mat between the vertical lines and the horizontal fold your coping strips in half align the fold on the horizontal now pivot your strip for how much tilt you want a little will go a long way put a short ledge of masking tape along the top edge of the coping strip put the center of your block at the intersection of the lines then lie the strip flat now adjust your coping strip until the bottom point just touches the outside edge of the block cut the coping strip parallel to the vertical lines then cut it along that horizontal line sew one piece to the top and one piece to the bottom then repeat with the other side remember to center the side of the block on the center line and cut the sides parallel to the sides of the block you can have all your blocks tilt the same way or reverse the tilt by flipping your coping strips and blocks over and cutting from that side again you can mix up the colors between blocks or within the blocks to find some fun layouts just a note when you cut your blocks down or make them larger it affects the overall size of your quilt so you may need to do some math to check the dimensions that they still work for the size of your project so take a good look at your blocks and decide what method will work best for you and remember no matter which method you choose your quilt will still be full of warmth love and worthy of a label gnome angel and i are just about to embark on another 100 days 100 blocks challenge if you would like to join in the fun i'll leave a link in the notes below i'll also leave a link to my quilt along playlist full of tips and tricks for success take care and i'll see you next time

Channel: Just Get it Done Quilts

Views: 71,546

Keywords: quilting, karen brown, just get it done quilts, quilting tutorial, beginner quilting, fast and easy, diy

Id: E4YxS9qlHh8

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 30 2022