Do you ever have a day when 6th-grade math escapes you and the simplest detail makes a mountain out of a molehill?
I'll go back to the beginning. Cynthia Brunz/Quilting is More Fun than Housework periodically collects blocks from other quilters which she assembles into compassion quilts for specific causes. This spring she is requesting red/white/blue churndash blocks in two finished sizes, 12" and 6". I was happy to contribute some blocks leftover from a previous project. Rats, my blocks were labeled 4-1/2".
I could frame them out to be 6-1/2" unfinished but, wait; the center of a 12" block calls for a 4-1/2" square which I could replace with my mini-dashes! So I proceeded to use the measurements in her pattern for the side pieces. I cut 2-1/2" strips, stitched a white and red strip together, and cut them into 4-1/2" segments.
.JPG)
Oops, apparently my 4-1/2" label meant finished size. So I made another stripset, cut into 5" segments. Then I made corner units, again using measurements in the instructions. Except I forgot that there were TWO 2-1/2" strips in each set.
Duh! It was about that point that I realized I needed to reduce the strip size to 2-1/4" to compensate for the larger size of my center square which meant my corner HSTs should be 4" unfinished. To make sure my math was correct, I made a test corner.
.JPG)
Good thing I only made ONE of these because they were supposed to be blue and white!
.JPG)
Whew! Success, at last.
PS: That first photo is the second block. It doesn't pay to get cocky!
Now you have a pretty block you can keep! It would make a nice center of a small medallion quilt with a few simple borders like checkerboard and piano keys. Of course there is always a chance it can make it into an orphan block quilt. Math just eludes us some days, even me who loves math.
ReplyDeleteWell, don't they say, "All's well that ends well?!" I Like the way your block turned out in the end. I need to make some of those for Cynthia, too.
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced quilt math is as hard as calculus, because it's not just math, you actually have to make things fit.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it is hard to wrap one's brain around a simple concept. Glad you persevered!
ReplyDeleteI love math - even got a degree in it - but quilt math defeats me every. single. time! You ended up with such a pretty block!
ReplyDeleteLove these blocks Libby. I can’t wait to see them in person. Cynthia
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the retreat photos showing the quilting taking place. And I so admire your math with this particular issue and the stripping in another post too. I'm hopeless at accurate cutting and avoid it as much as possible. But look at the gorgeous block you finished with!
ReplyDeleteOh, Libby! How did I miss this post? Fast forward to Cynthia's post about the completed Compassion Quilt. Your blocks made it shine!
ReplyDelete