My Quilting Group and The Wanderer’s Wife and the Tale of the 1/4″ Seam

Our journey of Block 1 continues with assembling all the blocks. How do two blocks that were cut exactly the same come out totally different sizes? Quilting is full of surprises and the phrase “make it work”. Heather’s block measured exactly 9″ when it was completed – my block measured exactly 10″ – both blocks should have measured 9-1/2″. The problem? The 1/4″ seam – Heather’s seams were wide and mine were narrow – who knew? This is the story of “our quilting life” – we learn every. single. time. we are together. We laugh about precision and imprecision and now, our hope rests with Margaret, whose dedication to precision will – most likely – result in a 9-1/2″ block. We will definitely keep you posted.

So, we worked with our beautiful, new sewing machines – Husqvarna Viking – to see if we can be assisted in keeping our seams evenly and properly spaced. First of all, we discovered that the needle adjusts and that the use of Foot A – the line on it – keeps you at a perfect 1/4″ seam. The other important lesson is that it pays to test, measure, check, repeat. A special shout out to Charles (my husband) for researching and trying various “tests” on the machine to discover what worked best.

Here is the video he produced to help us set up our machines for our 1/4″ seam success:

So, with all of our new knowledge and focus, we start Block 2…Pershing…new colours and combinations…and tips…. One of the biggest tips was to square the block as you go so that you don’t end up with different size blocks created by each quilter (at the end)- when the only thing you can do is l laugh and make it work. By the way, Madigan, although cute, was absolutely NO HELP with this problem….

Written by Pam

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