Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Dashing Off the Churn Dash

I didn't expect to have anything sewing related to share this week, but yesterday turned out to be a day of puttering in sewing world.  This month's block for the Wee Bee was a mini churn dash, which seemed simple enough but caused me lots of frustration.  There are so many seams that the smallest inaccuracy ended up with a block that was ever so slightly off size.  Now, you might think after the first off size block I might smarten up, but no, it took me THREE to stop and analyze what might be wrong! I've never been one to worry about perfection, but this was ridiculous!

So, I narrowed it down to zipper foot, ruler or pencil line.  (or all three) I measured the zipper foot and all was well there.  Then I took out a newish ruler and held it against my beloved 3x18 one and lo and behold, it was a hair different.  So I backed it up just past the line when measuring and found that all my blocks were right on size.  Who would have thought that over the years a ruler would wear down on the cutting side.

The requested format was "scrappy-happy" with purples, blacks and burgundy.  I realized yesterday that aside from solids, I have not bought any fabric for six months, and am finally getting to use up all the bits and pieces on my shelves.  What's left now I don't much like and don't know why I bought it, but will donate it to a craft circle for them to use and now I can buy some more!




9 comments:

  1. Lovin' these mini churn dashes, Margaret! Especially those with the fussy cut centers. They are all incredible! Thanks for sharing your learning experiences in this post, too!

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  2. Your scrappy happy blocks look great and so varied and colourful. Especially like the beautiful pansy block.

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  3. I'd never thought to fussy cut churn dash centers before- what a great idea!

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  4. Churn dash was one of my first quilts. I still like it. Heck, we all wear down on our cutting side! ;~)

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  5. Such sweet churn dash blocks. Love the owl! :)

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  6. These are brilliant. Love the frame effect on the owl one, very clever.

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  7. I never thought about my ruler wearing down. Now I will have to go check it!

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  8. Thanks for the tip about rulers wearing down, even so your blocks came out wonderful. Congrats that you got your stash down!

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