joe'smom

Iceblossom, those are so beautiful. I think we're all waiting with bated breath to see your quilt.

I felt better about my clue 7 HSTs today after seeing some of the med. blue ones next to the darker ones.

I have a few more sets of geese to trim and a few more sets of HSTs to sew. I found that I prefer the Wing Clipper for trimming geese over the Bloc-Loc; that is partly because we've pressed that first wing so the Bloc-Loc doesn't catch. The other problem with the Bloc-Loc for me is that I put gripper strips on the bottoms of every ruler. You can't do that with the Bloc-Loc, and so I was having trouble holding it in place.

jmoore

Iceblossom, your fabrics are beautiful, definitely worth the effort of dyeing them.

Queenbarbiej, it sounds like you enjoyed the Merry Mayhem pattern as much as I did. I haven’t started a second quilt yet, but have started to pull fabrics for a larger one. I’ll get through the Frolic quilt first...well maybe...

I have only gotten half of Clue 6 pieced and trimmed and just started cutting for Clue 7 (sigh)

origamigoldfish

I have finished piecing clue six, and am starting to trim down the flying geese and am running into problems. I have never made flying geese before, and the first few I pressed open and checked for size were correct. Now that I am trimming them, the blocks are all just slightly oversized...probably from me trying too hard to press the blocks flat and distorting them with the iron.

My problem is that I am using that folded corner ruler Bonnie recommended to trim them down, because it is my only ruler with a 45 degree angle on the quarter inch line. When I lay the block flat under the middle of the ruler to check the overall size, the initial quarter inch seam above the point reads as oversized, and needs a sliver trimmed off. When I flip the ruler around to the edge where the 45 degree angle is, that first seam to square off is too short to even reach the edge of the ruler. (It's not on every ruler I checked...distance from the point to edge of fabric is about 3/16 of an inch). On the few that did not read as too short, once I made the first cut on the point side, I kept getting the same results with every other side. I figure this is part of making flying geese with all of the bias edges involved, but I do need to trim these down. Do I press them again and weigh them down while they cool so they're as flat as I can make them when I trim? Will a specialty ruler make this easier?

I trimmed down four sets before I realized what inconsistent results I'm getting and stopped. I don't want to accidentally trim them too short and have to start over...I don't have that much fabric left! Advice please? And thank you in advance!

SusieQOH

Origami- I'm having a hard time with the geese. I'm using the Wings clipper but I didn't make them the way you do with that ruler.
I'm going crazy with them. Some are fine, others not.
I may just make some the other way and hope they come out okay.
Sorry I don't really have any advice.

joe'smom

Origami, I don't think you need a 45 degree angle for trimming geese. A small, square ruler with clear markings is good for trimming any type of small unit. Normally what I do when trimming is find the point on the ruler that represents half the measurement of the unit. I then place this mark on the halfway point of the unit (in this case you could use the point of the triangle as the center of the unit). I trim whatever is hanging over, then flip the unit and do the same for the other side. I then flip again and check the width.

The Wing Clipper ruler by Deb Tucker makes it so easy to trim flying geese! If you're up for buying something to trim the geese, I'd recommend the Wing Clipper!

SusieQ, sorry you are having trouble with the geese! My early geese were awful but the later ones were much better, after I moved my fabric a little way from my seam guide.

Iceblossom

Origami, also try marking your ruler with some tape. I have the 1/4" seam line masking tape but blue tape can work too. I wish I could show the rulers I've adapted for this project but it gives away size into and things I shouldn't say.

Earlier in this thread though showed a ruler I used on a different project and the diagonal tape line I placed so I could trim 7.5" QST blocks. Same concept but smaller sizes here.

Bonnie Hunter's 2019-2020 Frolic Mystery

Iceblossom

So there I am, zooming along with this step, keeping my pieces organized but doing 10 sets at a time instead of just one. Life is good, but I'm watching my top spool, it's getting low and sometimes there are crossed threads or other problems. I glance up and see it's still awfully full from the last time I looked and darn it! I've just finished sewing my last 4-5 sets with no bobbin thread and now they are mixed up. Fortunately, the non-sewn squares were clipped together in the sewing order and so it wasn't too bad to get back on track. The safety pins are working well, I'm keeping the unsewn fabrics together with them, but I'm keeping the combos together with clothes pin, less invasive to the fabric.

True Story: Today I'm wearing my "It's all fun and games until the bobbin runs out" t-shirt. Coincidence or tempting fate??

Goal for today is to finish sewing the pieces that get sewn. I'm more likely to trim the HST tomorrow but it would be nice to get them done today. Still, I can trim and assemble my pinwheels tomorrow and be back on track. It's doable.

KalamaQuilts

Sorry, but laughing till the tears squirt.

I just finished cleaning up my selvages box, 57 of those little cute blocks, ready to be paired up with something down the road. A good clean up! Paper piecing uses up bobbin thread way faster than standard piecing... I ran out a bunch of times

Queenbarbiej

Last night I ran out of bobbin thread with a half inch left to sew on my fly geese.

Tweety2911

Sorry Iceblossom. I feel the frustration. I sewed 41 pinwheel blocks for clue 7, then flipped the page of instructions and realized I was having way too much fun sewing along. Had to rip out 16 of them. Now life is back to normal in my quilt world.