Seriously I feel as if I've wasted two whole days.
I am trying to paper piece some farmer wife blocks.
Yesterday I spent hours sewing the paper pieced pieces, but then had no idea how to assemble them! I mean how to you attach that little pink square!
Sorry the pictures are on my old mat! I do have nicer ones, LOL!
Now in the garbage!
Today I spent four hours trying to make this one block; seriously four hours, I have such a headache. No matter what I did they did not turn out. I even tried to make then HST's individually.
Still did not work!
Once again in the garbage!
Have you ever had days like this? One step forward two steps back?
Now on a lighter note! My friendship blocks for this month turned out great. Maria and I choose.....
Blue
Red
Yellow
Navy
Light Green
Yellow
We only have two months left May and June.
Are May colors are......
Light Green
blue
Dark green
Navy
Red
light green
I am going to be sad when the swap is over it has been so much fun and I have met some wonderful ladies. I think our quilt will be amazing!
Have a wonderful weekend I hope you do something you love
Definitely had days like this! I think for your first block if you just ripped off the rectangle pieces under the pinwheels and sew it in three sections it should work. When I pieced small pinwheel blocks I always made them larger and cut down to size. Bee in my bonnet has some great Farmers Wife tutorials. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I'm sorry you had all that trouble with your FW blocks! I agree with Anita- you need to treat the first block like a nine-patch. Not sure I could help with the second one from here! Our friendship swap is winding up too! What will I do?
ReplyDeleteSorry you've had some sewing frustration.
ReplyDeleteThe friendship blocks are great, they're lovely sunny blocks. I haven't finished mine yet, it's not as if I haven't had enough notice! Better go and get on with them so they're done by the end of today!
Must be the week for frustration :/ I had churned out two quilt tops for a charity I sew for, cracking along on the next one, doing a little happy dance as I had used nearly all the fabric they sent me, then my machine decided it didnt want to play anymore :( Came to a screaming halt. Upside I dragged out my old Globe machine and will work on some pillowcases for me and paper piecing, as the 1/4" is not bang on the money on it. I do feel as Im in good company for a bad sewing week :)
ReplyDeletePlease dont throw that in the garbage lol
ReplyDeleteSurely stitching each half squares together then
stitching a half square duo to the rectangle and then that, to the next half sq duo,
makes the ( bottom) third of the finished block.
the centre strip would be stitching a horizontal rectangle to pink square to horiz rectangle.
Then stitch the top half sq duo, rectangle and half sq duo together
and youll have 3 strips as it were, to then stitch laterally across, together -
does that make sense?
EPP gets so much faster the more you do and you can ease points into matching after a while with practise.
Spray starch helps EPP keep its shape when stitching too.
I only know this since Ive learnt so much myself from Karen at her Faeries and Fibres blog. Karen has so many fascinating EPP tuts you cant fail but absorb ideas!
Yup! Happened to me trying to make a FW quilt block I gave up and am afraid to try again.
ReplyDeleteWe must be on the same wave length. I mades some FW blocks yesterday too. I am also paper piecing them. I keep sewing them together the wrong way and having to rip out those teeny tiny stitches.....I share your angst!
ReplyDeleteThe pink block should be sewn to the end of one rectangle and then to the end of the other rectangle. So you have rectangle, pink, rectangle. Then the other two rows should be pinwheel, rectangle, pinwheel. Then you sew the three rows together. You can do it! And yes, I've had days like this.
ReplyDeleteCheck out Laughyourselfintostitches blog. She has classes on how to rotary cut and sew the Farmer's wife quilt blocks.
ReplyDeleteyou are not alone! The last day I had like this was recently, because I had not been sewing in awhile. I finally was able to, picked up my paper pieces I am working on and sewed it on the wrong side of the paper, redid it it to remember I did not make the stitch length short, then redidi it to figure out I put the background fabric in the wrong spot.... then just needed to walk away for a bit lol
ReplyDeleteI've never looked at the instructions for the FW blocks, but I would hope they are more than the one page you have shown. I'm guessing not since so many are directing you to video tutes. It looks as though you've been given some great help here tho. Don't give up, reset your mind to the right frame of mind and carry on. I know your frustrations and that it's a lot easier said than done.
ReplyDeleteI'm really loving your friendship blocks! That's definitely one quilt I'm looking forward to seeing complete.
I have lots of those days, lol. If my brain can't wrap itself around something like piecing, I give up and work on something else for awhile and then I can come back and, get it.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
I would suggest making it the same way as Carol Stearns did. Make the centre strip first (rectangle, pink square, rectangle) then make the left hand side (pinwheel, rectangle, pinwheel) then do the same for the right hand side and then sew the three sections together.
ReplyDeleteFor the second block, treat it as 4 horizontal strips of pinwheels. Once you've sewn the hsts into rows, sew the four rows together.
The instructions are all there on the page, you just have to look very carefully at the diagram.
I've found it helps a lot to use starch as my hsts distort when they are that tiny and I use a scant 1/4" seam - I prefer to trim if necessary rather than unpick!! I'll try and give more of a photo tutorial when I post my next blocks on my blog, so you can see what I've done :-)
Bummer! That paper-piecing really exercises my brain. I do love your swap blocks! Good luck with your next try!!
ReplyDeleteOh jane....you have no idea!!! ABSOLUTELY...except mine where in the trash within 30 minutes...then I just started to skip the blocks with too many pieces. Luckily, I enjoyed reading the Farmer's Wife stories....check out my attempt at this post as I'm a Farmer's Wife Dropout: http://myplvl.blogspot.com/2014/02/im-farmers-wife-dropout.html
ReplyDeleteYou have gotten some excellent advise so I will just say~ yes, I've had days like that! I hope today is better! ♥
ReplyDeleteI concur I have definitely had many days like this. However being a border hoarder I don't throw anything away and at some point my oops find a way into other projects. On to tomorrow with renewed vigor...
ReplyDeleteoh no Jane...call me if you need some advice...or a shoulder to cry on. :(
ReplyDeletekeep at it, do you still have the pinwheel pieces? hard to tell how much of them are together, but have it be in chunks of 9 then chunks of 4 like you assemble a nine patch....???
ReplyDeleteIt is not at all fun when this happens, I've been there too! So sorry!
ReplyDelete