One of the things I've learned since beginning this quilting adventure is that all quilt kits aren't the same. The first kit I worked on was from Craftsy and had step by step instructions. Silly newbie me thought that all kits would be like that, hahaha. So, I saw this kit on sale and thought, great deal, I'll get it and eventually figure it out. Then, my oldest son, the last "kid" (at 25) to have a quilt made for him chose this kit for his quilt. Not only had I not worked with chevrons before, I hadn't worked with flannel either. The instructions didn't tell me how to put the chevrons together, so after doing some internet surfing, I found that the 'ears' should stick out 1/4". Great... or not! I am beginning to dread working on this quilt. I spend so much time measuring and ironing and trying to make sure the ears are exactly 1/4" and then end up ripping out as much as I'm sewing together. I'm so happy to have it half-way done (the left side as you can see) but I'm hoping for some suggestions to make this chevron piecing process easier.
This is the way I'm measuring each chevron ear.
Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? I'd really appreciate some advice!
Hi there. So in my mom's quilt shop JoyQuilts, we just finished doing a block of the month with a lot of different shaped pieces and one block was a chevron. What some of my BOM people found helpful to do when piecing this block together was to draw the quarter inch seam allowance on the piece and line them up that way. It was a good trick to try and make the pieces line up nicely.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your help Adrian, I really apprectiate it! That technique makes total sense. I'll try it today :)
ReplyDeleteI have an idea that might not be as tedious as drawing on each piece. If you have some painters tape or cute washi tape you can mark two lines on your sewing plate 1/4 inch apart. Then you can match up each piece to those lines. It's hard for me to explain so I''ll email you a picture.
ReplyDeleteThis is looking pretty awesome! As for tips, both of these sound good; I know I have used special rulers (for the triangle in a square block, not for chevrons) to trim the ears before stitching so you can line them up perfectly. Maybe there is something for chevrons?
ReplyDeleteI don't have a tip to help you line up the ears better, but I do have a general tip - don't worry too much about perfect matching points and precise seams. OK, it's great to have them but it's one of the things that comes with practice, but if you're getting frustrated ripping out every seam three times, it's probably better to let it go.
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