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I am making a quilt for my daughter in law. She wanted a "modern looking quilt", Not one of those, "well, you know.........old looking ones!" So......I found a pattern on "AllPeopleQuilt.com, asked her if she liked it, she said yes, then she picked out the fabric pieces and I am making the quilt.

OK, I am so frustrated ........it is/should be so simple! 13.5 inch strips of varying sizes (anywhere from 4.5 x 13.4 to 1.5 x 13.5). There will be a total of three different sections 13.5 X 90.5..........the rest of the quilt is solid fabric ( hope this is making sense?) ANYWAY, my strips are a mess!!! Sewn together they are not square... I can not find a place where my stitching is off ...... is it that there was a "V" in the strip at some point and this is making it off? Not sure what now to do.........just wing it I guess, but I am so darn frustrated!!!!!

I used to belong to a quilt guild and would take my problems to one of them. Since getting married and moving at least an hour away, I have not found anyone to "whine to" !! Well, I do feel better now.........thanks for listening!! Guess I will just carry on and make the best of it!!

Pwife, so sorry. And, you've come to a good place to whine and get help. I'm tryint to invision your problem, but a picture might help. Some times when I cut strips I get a v where the fold is (even though I try really hard to square up before cutting. It can be very frustrating. Maybe try laying it out on a flat survace and see if you can find the strips that are not behaving. Then make adjustments to them. Sometimes its the simplest quilts that give us the hardest time. Hang in there!

Yes the V will make the sewing off. Did you straighten the fabric before cutting? sorry

Which pattern on All People Quilt are you fretting about??? Can you post a Link or tell me where to look...I do so much better with a visual.....One question...Are your Rulers true no shaved edges on them??? A Vee will mess you up but don't know how much...

Could you trim all of the squares to the same size - the size of the smallest one? That way they could fit together, the quilt just wouldn't be the exact size you had planned.

thanks for all the responses so far. the quilt is from allpeoplequilt.com. The name of it is Center Strips Bed Quilt. It is to be a queen size spread.

I didn't square up the fabric before cutting, no. Quite frankly I wouldn't know how! 13.5 inches is a bit long for me to sew together without pinning I am finding that out now! I am so frustrated....really want to cry! How pathetic am I??

Oh PWife, we have all been in your shoes and feel your pain! I have no solutions, just sympathy.

I searched for that pattern - is it the one with the 3 rows of strips and then a solid strip on each side?

Definitely square up your fabric before starting any more cutting. If you can square up what you have already done (which might shorten your strip sets to 13" or even 12.5", then widen your solid strips that run in between). Was that clear as mud?

I have also found that I need to sew the strips from opposite ends. If I continually start on the same side, after a while those pieces seem to go wonky. Not sure why, but it does happen.

I hear your frustration, and I'm thinking you could use a good cup of tea and some chocolate.

Another option would be to sew the strips in pairs, then sew two pairs together to make 4 strip units, sew two 4 strip units together, so on.

That might help the migration of "straight" that you are experiencing. Also, sewing from the opposite ends is also beneficial.

Here's a good youtube video on how to square up your fabric.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcpzwJMVTbc

Now if you feel the strips are too long to sew without pinning you can always use Elmers Washable school glue. Just use little dots of glue and then press to dry. That will hold the strip no matter how long in perfect order. Here's a little blog note I wrote some time ago
http://sandyquilts.blogspot.co...glue-and-quilts.html

Good Luck

Walk away, and come back tomorrow!!!! We have all been there. Making the doll quilts with the pillow case method and put the first one together all wrong. Luckily it is just a 14 x 18 inch project but had to rip it all out.

I come from clothing sewing and I still pin probably a lot more than most people. Just feel more secure doing that a lot of times... Chris

I purchased one of those Fiskar fabric cutters that look like a paper cutter. I LOVE it!
When you use it, you will not get any of those V's. Straight cuts!

They run around $27 with a half off coupon at JoAnns. They use regular Fiskar blades.

quote:

Center Strips Bed Quilt

Here is the Link I think

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/...center-strips_2.html

Do you have a Shape Cut Ruler it looks like this.If you have a Joanns near...I think they are on sale this week/weekend...check their Flyer.I believe this Ruler might help you with future cuts. There is also a Ruler cut in 1/4 sections like the Shape Cut,it called the Quarter cut.

http://store.junetailor.com/st...shape-cut-ruler.aspx

http://store.junetailor.com/st...arter-cut-ruler.aspx

As far as your present "design Opportunity" you may have to do some unsewing and make those strips squared before sewing them back together and then measure after you sew a few together. It is very difficult sometimes to keep strip like this straight. If you look close at the picture on All Quilts,those rows look a tad skewed to me.

Good luck to you on this,you will get it right I'm sure.

Shape Cut picture...on the site I posted you can enlarge the pictures and I'm sure there are u-Tube videos on them...

May....thank you, yes that is the quilt. Yes, should have walked away, lol but before we got married my husband set up a quilting room down in the basement. Put up lots of lighting, put in cabinets, lots of room! BUT......I like to be upstairs with him! LOL, so I had all my "stuff" (or I drug up all my "toys" as he calls them) upstairs and am on my third day of sewing up in the dining room. He just grins and shakes his head. My sweater is covered with threads, the floor has thread and dust bunnies all over the place so I thought I better stick to it.

Not sure how it is going to turn out yet. I did trim the strips down to 12.5. I think part of the problem is one of the fabrics is more loosely woven than the others,AND my cutting was not totally accurate, AND my stitching was maybe a little off at times. Sigh, and I thought it was going to be so simple!!! It will be what it will be I guess!

Tomorrow I will put it all together and let the quilter quilt the heck out of it to make it fairly flat LOL..........won't she love me??? (NOT!)

Thank you all for your help. I did go look at that video on squaring up fabric.....but how do you square up a large piece of fabric?? Like the 90.5 piece for the sides of the quilt?

Again thanks.........

"So how do you square up long pieces"

With a long table and lots of rulers and a couple big cans of tomato juice(to help hold the rulers in place).I have been known to use a 48" drywall square to help out.

Just say it's a Wonky Quilt" and smile. Wonky is in with a lot of new quilt designers, ala Gee's Bend.