Friday, July 23, 2010

Batik Gems - Part 2

I got the majority of the fabric cut for the orange quilt with the exception of the borders.  Yesterday I started sewing the 16 patch blocks and came into some problems.  The 16 patch blocks are made up of small 1 1/2" squares of fabric which proved to be a sewing challenge.  My machine kept wanting to swallow up the fabric into the bobbin area.  I even tried a starter piece of fabric then did the chain piecing with the little squares of fabric and still ended up with numerous messes to clean up (see picture below). 


My problem is that the throat plate has a wide opening because of the zigzag stitch and I would need to buy a special plate that has a small diameter hole that would only allow the needle in. Well that's another expense of about $45.00 and after spending plenty on fabric for the 2 quilts I'm going to be making I figured there has to be another way.

Sure enough, paper piecing. Thanks to Hetty of Crafts and Stuff
http://hettyscreations.blogspot.com/ she showed me earlier this month how to convert regular piecing blocks into paper pieced patterns. So I drafted up my pattern and I ended up doing 2 test runs before getting things right. So now I have a perfect 16 patch block that is ready to sew into my quilt. I just have 8 more to make.  So Hetty I have a bunch of 1 1/2" squares of fabric with no use.  Would you care to add them to your "tiny scrap block" project?  Let me know.


Also I want to say thank you to Marina and Daryl at Quilt Inspiration http://quiltinspiration.blogspot.com/. I entered a giveaway at the begining of the month and won 2 issues of McCall's Quilting and it's great since I don't have these issues.  So when I take a break from quilting this weekend I'm going to be browsing through my magazines.   

3 comments:

hetty said...

Wow! Glad I was able to inspire you to try doing those blocks in paper piecing. I wonder if your problem wasn't the needle you were using. Batiks are very dense and maybe another needle (like a sharp or demin) would have pierced them better. I'll take any squares you have left over! Thanks

Sand and Sunshine said...

Congrats on your win - funny that one of the quilts on the magazine has a teal batik that looks like one of the fabrics in your block. Happy reading!

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

I find that when mine starts punching down throught the plate that I need to change the needle. I think you can make a single hole opening with tape and a piece of cardstock. Punch a hole with a 1/8" punch and tape it in place between the feed dogs.