Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee: May

Erin is bee mama this month in the Modern Irish Bee.  She was looking for scrappy Road To Tennessee blocks in bright summery colors, with only a peppering of darker navy and grey.  I tried my best to oblige.

With a dig through my scrap bin, I pulled out 32 happily colored prints that I could pair with my white squares.  Still, my scrap pile does not look any smaller.


There are three things in quilt world that I'm not entirely comfortable with yet (beyond appliqué...that's a WHOLE other adventure).  Drunkard's path blocks scare me (even with Leanne's tutorial).  Scant quarter seams (what, exactly, is scant enough?).  And finally creating triangles by sewing ON the line, not 1/4 inch away from the line and squaring your blocks.

This project included two of my three weakest points.


I had recently seen a trick for corner triangles posted on Cluck Cluck Sew that I thought might be a new (better for me?) way of tackling these pesky corner triangles.  I will say I thoroughly enjoyed stitching on the corner triangles using their method, but sadly it did not always result in a nicely square piece.

In the end, I have two blocks for you, Erin.  I am happy with the fabrics used and think they fit in your summery vision.  I am reasonably happy with how my points came together even without locking seams.  Two stars.  However, they are absolutely smaller than the 12.5 inches square that they should be even with my scant seams.  Any scanter (is that a word?) and I am not sure they would have held together!  I hope they are still OK, Erin.  If not, they will surely spruce up the back of the quilt.

xx

14 comments:

cheeky monkey said...

Lovely blocks! Funny that you can not sew on a seam. I need to check the other way as I do not like the cutting of the corners. And you are right: scant is quite tricky ...

Wendy said...

they are fab blocks. seems odd they are too small when it used a scant seam...

Indianna said...

I move my machine needle one click to the right to sew scant seams. But still line up the foot as normal? Not sure if this is what everyone else does, but it works for me!

Isisjem said...

I hate the whole scant seam thing too. I asked for this block in a bee and had a whole range of finished square sizes but they all worked out in the end so I'm sure it'll be fine!

Henry's Shed said...

Scant seam allowances suck. Really.
But your blocks look beautiful anyway!! Love all the bright fabrics! xx

Katy Cameron said...

Love these! I have an allergy to triangles...

Andee said...

These look great!

helenjean@midgetgemquilts said...

these look great to me
guess what I'll be sewing bank holiday Monday>

Tomomi McElwee said...

love your choice of fabrc. I think scrap piles only grow bigger! Did you fold triangle in half to check they are in the right place before chopping off?

WhoMom said...

It's a great block! The fabrics are happy and the seams all look great. Hmm, maybe I should leave the computer long enough to try one....

Sarah said...

They look fab! Scant is very tricky and if your seam is a teeny bit bigger than scant then it gets quite abit smaller when there are so many components to the makeup of the block. We had all sorts of sizes when we asked for them at Bee Blessed but they came together quite well anyway.

Anonymous said...

They're really good, Cindy! I'm working on my second one :-)

Sarah said...

amazing fabric choices… love these!

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

They're gorgeous blocks and I'm sure Erin will be able to squash and stretch them into place!! I don't know why the sewing machine manufacturers don't make a scant 1/4" foot instead of the usual 1/4" foot...

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