Peckish

I understand tube quilting. What I don't understand how you get a diagonal square in a square design by sewing your blocks together! You're just going to end up with the same stripes - unless you're supposed to change your layout??

Onebyone

I do a lot of tube piecing. You have to change the lay out from what you have it in order for the design to be worth your time.

Kassaundra

That's the hard way to get diagonal stripes for sure!!!! I do understand that wasn't your intention when you started and were just playing w/ the layout. You cannot do what you want w/ these squares. For the diagonal stripe to work this way the stripes in the squares would have to have been sewn w/ an offset so that the sewn seam matched not the edge.

Gay

The only way to make a square-in-a-square block is to take 4 pieces and turn 3 till one colour faces the center and sew a 4patch.

I think a more accurate way would have been to join strips then cut out triangles. You would have some squares with the dark in the center and some with light.

DeltaMS

What I have done in the past when I wanted the fabric to line up, I mark the back of the fabric of both pieces a quarter inch from the edge with a marker or pen (don't let it bleed through). Then I take a pin and put it straight through both pieces of fabric and line up my marks; then I would pin on both sides of this pin like you regularly pin. Hope this makes sense. I found when I was working with diagonal stripes they were perfect until I sew them. Some how in my opinion, I was loosing that perfection with my seam allowance.

zozee

I'm a bit confused as well. But I can picture a square in a square if you turn 4 adjacent blocks so that all the light colors are touching in the middle. All your dark colors will surround those. The light square will actually be on point if I'm thinking correctly, and the darks will "frame" that.

PaperPrincess

The squares are simply not cut correctly to assemble them with diagonal lines. You will be off by more than 1/4" seam allowance. Take the first 2 squares in the first row. Draw the quarter inch seam allowance on the back. For the diagonal stripes to meet, you need to match the point where the drawn line intersects the seam. In the diagram below, the green dots would have to meet for the stripes to be aligned after sewing. You can see how much you would have to offset the squares to make this happen. The colors are lovely, so take some time and rearrange the blocks in a different pattern.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]569821[/ATTACH]

DeltaMS

Yes, I agree somewhat with what Paperprincess and Snooze2978 are saying. Line up your pieces from the front like you want. Then on the back where you want your pieces to line up mark a 1/4 inch from both edges and then using a pin push it through both marks. At this point you would pin and sew as usual. When all else fells, youtube videos are wonderful.

Innov8R

I encountered a similar problem. I pressed 1/4 inch seam allowances then turned the blocks over to the right side to align them. When they perfectly aligned, I slip stitched them from the front. When I sewed them along the creases that I made with my iron they stayed perfectly aligned and looked great. I probably broke every rule ever made getting the match, but my diagonals matched.

klswift

It will not happen because of the seams. My suggestion is you play up them not matching. Either change the design completely so they go in opposite directions or sew sets of two and work them into a bit of a zigzag. I would pin or sew a few sets of 2 and 4 and then play with the design wall.