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Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee
Shine on Sampler-Month 8
Written by Brenda
Measure twice, cut once. How many times have we heard and said it? With these blocks, I want to remind you of it once again. We are going to look closely at the Home Again block. The piecing of the block isn’t altogether too complicated, but without the accuracy we have been working on and lots of measuring along the way, you could run into problems.
First of all, double check all of the pieces as you do your initial cutting. I found that I had made an error when I put together the chimneys and the roof. I thought that the ruler I had used to measure the roof was 12 ½”, but when I put these two sections next to each other, I could tell that something was wrong. It was a half an inch short! Thankfully, it didn’t take too much time to recut the roof and corner sections.
The corner sections were added easily and without marking by using an angle tool. The version that we carry in the store is called Clearly Perfect Angles. By using the tool to sew from corner to corner, you can sew accurately and efficiently. If I can’t use AccuQuilt to cut, this is my next favorite way to sew those angles. Stack the square onto the rectangle, make sure the needle will start at the corner and have the other corner follow the center line on the tool to make this section of the block.
This pattern does a beautiful job of sharing the measurements of the sections as you go along which is extremely helpful. When I measured my row with the three windows, I found that it was a bit long. No matter how accurate you are, it is challenging to make a section with 6 seams match a single piece cut to size. In order to fix that problem, I sewed a couple of those seams again with a slightly greater seam allowance and measured again. It was close, so I sewed two more with a greater seam allowance and I got it to measure the correct size. Here you can see the second seams that I sewed. I could have taken the first seam out with a seam ripper, but I chose to press those seams to the side. It’s all good!
How do you hold your long seams together when you stitch them together? Rather than using pins, I like to use Wonder Clips. They come in lots of different sizes. My favorites are the Mini Wonder Clips. They hold your pieces together without the shifting that can occur when you use pins. On seams this size, I use one in the middle and one at the end, then away I sew, slowly and carefully.
The other blocks are pretty straightforward. Use the angle tool and you’ll be well on your way to getting this month’s blocks sewn accurately and quickly!
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