Rosasta0

Been working on this and it's been driving me absolutely batty. I have meticulously pinned and ripped and pinned again and I still end up not matching exactly. No idea what the "trick" could be, but I've actually started hand-basting the seams in an attempt to match them better. Anyone out there have any ideas/hints regarding this nightmare?

joe'smom

There were some seams in this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, involving chevrons, that I couldn't figure out how to match up. It ended up being guess work, hit and miss. I hope someone will be able to help you!

QuiltnNan

you might try marking the piece at 1/4 from the two corner edges, do the same on the other piece. Then you can match those two dots. I'm too lazy to do that. so like you, i do the trial and error

Rosasta0

I did the BH quilt this year too and despised the chevrons. And then I started this quilt and was not happy to realize all the chevrons in it. I thing chevrons are my least liked blocks!

Rosasta0

I actually started hand-basting the intersections and then will go back and sew the blocks on the machine. What a pain!

Macybaby

The trick is to make sure the templates are designed so the seams will match up. looking at yours, you are not going to get them to match up unless you don't match up the edges, and that might give you grief somewhere else.

The angles on your non-chevron block would need to be slightly different for it to line up correctly. The yellow part is a bit too large on the wide end.

Rosasta0

Yep, Cathy - it's driving me nuts. This entire pattern has been a headache. The instructions also had me make HST's by using 2-7/8" squares sewn on the diagonal. Directions never said what size the finished HST's should be, so I "assumed" 2.5". Meticulously trimmed 500+ of those suckers only to find later after sewing 4 of them together they were supposed to measure 3.5" square! So guess who will be trimming all these 2.5" HST's down to 2"? Yep, me. I guess if I have learned one lesson it is that I should make one of each block prior to going ahead and constructing all of the pieces and then learning that problems exist.

bearisgray

Sounds like the instructions could have been written better.

Onebyone

I have learned with a block with lots of angles a specialty ruler is the best way to go with the pattern being written for the ruler. Looking at your block I don't think you can make it work as is, the right side looks way off as sewn. Glue basting to match my seams before sewing works for me.

Peckish

That's what I do also, and here's how I do it:

Put your patches right sides together. On the top fabric, stick a pin in the very center of the seam (right between the fabrics), 1/4" away from the raw edge. Slide the fabric up the pin so you can see the bottom fabric, and stick the pin in the very center of that seam, 1/4" away from the raw edge. Put a drop of Elmer's washable school glue in the seam allowance and press to set the glue. Remove pin and stitch seam. If you like to press your seams open, simply run a stiletto between the seams to un-glue them.

One of the things I've discovered is sometimes, even if you use a 1/4" seam, you have to move one of the fabrics in or out by 1/16" or 1/8" to get the seams to match.