Read the Directions!
I will preface this post by saying that I am not a fan of specialty rulers, especially those that are good for only one task, and most especially those that work for a limited size of block. I make an exception for those made by Deb Tucker/Studio 180 Designs because of their versatility.
I think I mentioned earlier that I "cheated" on Jenn's Journey by using some already-made snail's trail blocks.
However, this decision also affected the dimensions of the diamonds and square-in-a-square blocks (versus what was in the pattern). I thought I was smart enough to figure out what I needed to do. That was my first mistake! The second was not making any notes on what I was planning to do and letting it sit in a box for over a year. 😕
In the project box I found Deb Tucker's Diamond Rects ruler which I used to establish the odd angle for cutting the diamonds. But I didn't notice that the ruler also included measurements for cutting the corners. Instead I used the corners I found in the box. As a result, my Diamond blocks were coming out 1/8"too narrow. I was able to compensate for that in the seams.
Then I spent hours trying to figure out how big to cut the center square for the square-in-a-square blocks. I had gone through this same exercise just a few weeks ago when I was working on Everlasting! (shown below).
Well, duh! I have Deb Tucker's Square Squared ruler hanging on the ruler board! It tells me to cut the center squares from a 3-1/2" strip.
So I cut 3-1/2" squares. And I'm thinking why would anyone need a template to cut a square?
The ruler also told me how big to cut the corners.
Which I dutifully followed. But my SiaS was too big and the points would be cut off ... because the square which I cut from a 3-1/2" strip would have been 3-3/8" if I had used the ruler template!
Just so you know -- I know how to cut 3/8" but I understand not everyone has a ruler with eighth-inch markings so I'm not making a negative comment about the ruler. I obviously did not read the instructions!
Deb Tucker/Studio 180 Designs is just up the road from me. LOTS of her rulers around these parts!
ReplyDeleteFrustrating, but I'm glad you were able to figure out how to make it work.
ReplyDeleteI know you prefaced your post with a statement about not liking specialty rulers. However, you should check out Donna Thomas' On Point Ruler. It does the math for you, and lets you cut the right size square based on the diagonal size you want. So, if you want your finished square-in-a-square unit to be 4", you cut on the 4 and get a square that will finish 4" on the diagonal.
ReplyDelete