Making a Test Block

I spent a few days on looking at new patterns and set out to do a test block for one of them. Certainly looked simple enough if I could figure out the math for this block.

Wow, what an adventure...I have the EQ8 program which of course gives me the precise measurements which (after many attempts of mucking around) were at 6 1/4in:

Now, nobody is going to piece that with those measurements. How did I even get there. When thinking this through I tried to figure out the math for this block but it got very hairy as I tried to work out a simpler way of piecing this starting with a simple square in a square block and cutting that into quarters. My head hurt trying to work out what measurement I had to start with and in the end I had to sit down and piece this multiple times to think this through.

First attempt

Fail...my seam allowance was cut off. Next attempt:

Nice, but completely different measurement to what I thought it should be! Back to the drawing board...in order to piece this, I had to understand the math of the measurements. I was sitting there for ages doing all sorts of calculations with fractions until I worked that out and realised where I had gone wrong. I have a few more samples that I have not included here of my attempts to get that right. It was actually a bit hilarious.

So here it is, the final  attempt

Two Square in Square blocks (who would have thought that they can be so tricky in terms of their measurements). I cut those into quarters and arrived at my block

Not too bad but I thought that this is a very convoluted way of doing this and while piecing this is ok, you are dealing with a lot of bias edges and the likelihood of distortion and erosion of seam allowance is high.

So then I tried the Freezer Paper Piecing method. That was something I was going to try in the New Year when a friend alerted me to the possibility of this last year. Never heard of it...went over to Bryan House Quilts and read through a tutorial on this. It is basically foundation piecing without actually stitching through the paper. And bonus...you can use your template again and again.

Gave that a go...easy-peasy!

Here is my first finished unit. 

It is a small unit so that went very quickly and without any great hassle apart from me being a bit rusty in foundation piecing (i.e. making sure to cover each piece). Peeled off the paper from the back and made the second unit and then sewed them together and attached the big white triangle.

Can't beat that in terms of accuracy and the stability of the block. While still dealing with some bias edges the distortion was noticeably less. It also means I can make this block bigger, in fact I could make it any size I want without any great hassles. Piecing this from starting with a Square in a Square block really only gives you two measurements that you can work with if you are not into cutting pieces in 1/8 increments, so that was very limiting. 

Learned a lot over the last few days! Not sure whether I am going to pursue this pattern...it is sitting there looking at me saying 'make me!' but I am not sure whether people are that interested in foundation piecing. Mind you, these are only very small sections to make, so that could work for some people. Will ponder on this for a moment. In the meantime my mind is again going sideways already thinking of the possibilities...I have got several other designs sitting there where the freezer paper method could be a real game changer. Almost thinking to make this year the year of 'challenge'.

Karin