I didn’t get to spend the entire day on Friday on the Pineapples as I would have liked, but I got to spend some time on them and make some progress.
First, I needed to figure out the corner problem.
For Pineapple corners, you need to cut a square in half. The book assumes you have pieced perfectly and tells you to cut squares which are 1.75″ wide and use them to make the block and the squares that go on the corner. Because I was actually using fabric, which stretches and has fabric qualities, 1.75″ didn’t work for me. Below are the sizes I tried.
2″ works on some, but not all. I don’t want to rip the ones out that are too small and I can’t tell until I have sewed them, so 2″ squares (cut in half to form a triangle) are out.
3″: a little too big. I don’t need that much extra overlap.
2.5″ : still too big. I still don’t need that much extra for trimming.
2.25″ : looks too big, but once you sew it on it isn’t.
Here is the triangle cut from the 2″ square laid on top of the triangle cut from the 2.25″ square. It gave me a visual clue of the difference in size.
With the 2.25″ squares (cut into triangles), they work. They have enough play so I can trim them and make the blocks look beautiful. I was pretty excited about REALLY finishing the blocks and putting the quilt together until…
I put four blocks together. Sigh.
As you can see above, the border blocks fit pretty well together, but the center blocks (well, at least the one I finished with corners) are much too small, which means that they don’t work with the border blocks.
What does this mean?
How did this happen?
I used the same strips, the same sewing machine.
The only difference was the iron.
I am exceptionally down about this and truly ready to put this quilt away and start something new. That is exactly what I didn’t want to do. For once, I wanted to work on a quilt from start to finish.
I will add a few more corners to other center blocks and see if they are all too small, then I will decide what to do.
Hmmmm….. does your machine have a different needle setting, so maybe one straight stitch the needle is centered and on one it is one the left?
Anyway, what about sewing all the center squares together (if they are more or less the same size that is), add an inner border (a stripe?). Sew up the outside pineapples into four sides minus the cornerstones. Trim the inner border to fit the sides, then add on the corners and sew it up.
???? I know it’s not the same as it would have been but it *could* be really cool. Sigh. Sorry! Hope this sparks an idea,
Sarah
I can SO empathize! I have a couple quilts that are not finished because I got disgusted and put them aside. I HATE when that happens.
Maybe just setting it aside till after December 1st and THEN go back and try again? Sometimes just taking a break for a specified time gives me the impudence to go back like gang busters and make the damn thing work right! lol
hugs!!!
oh shoot! I hate when that happens! Were all of the strip pieces the same width? It is probably an optical illusion but the big red polka dot looks a bit wider to me. No solutions here, but to look and see if there is some way to set the littler blocks together and the bigger blocks together with some kind of border in between. That way you could at least use the blocks. OR maybe there are just a few outliers that messed you up here, and the rest are ok? I’m sorry it didn’t just fly together. 🙁
Sarah: Thanks for reading! My machine does have different needle settings, but I don’t use them. Yes, aside from remaking many of the blocks, I will see how adding a border looks. I decided to add all the corners so I know what I am dealing with. Stay tuned to see what develops.
Sherri: I really wanted this one to be right; to be wonderful. It just fees ruined now. 🙁 I know it is not ruined and I already have remaking some of the very outsized blocks, but it would be great if they were all just basically the same size. It is fabric, after all, so I never expected any of the blocks to be perfect, but the center block in the photo is more than .75″ smaller than the outer blocks. Perhaps I will take a rest and see what I can see after the new year? Thanks for reading!
Julie: I did find one strip that was slightly too large, but it isn’t in any of the blocks that I tested. I will put all the corners on and see what I am facing then I can decide about where to go from here. Sigh!