Annies Crazy World

I am now ready to start cutting…When trimming traditional quilt blocks to size the ruler or template is placed on top of the block…Doesn’t work for crazy quilted blocks, the embellishments destabalize the ruler makeing it impossible to get a clean accurate cut…The Trick is to trim the blocks from the edge, that is where the 9″ square marked with arrows on my cutting board come into play…

Warning: Trimming the blocks from the edge does mean that if you slip with the cutter it will cut into your block as well as possible injury to yourself…So Please do be carfull with your cutters, use a sharp blade so that you don’t have to push hard and force it through the fabric; Hold your ruler with a firm downward pressure; Don’t be tempted to cut at awkward angles, it may save a few seconds at the time but the risk of injury to self and block are substantially increased, it also makes it harder to line up the ruler and see the line to be cut, much easier to Always spin the block so that you Always cut away from your body.

The first cut…

If the corner points have been marked through the hole in the template than the 1st cut is made where the ruler lines up with 2 of the marked spots.

Otherwise position the block in the marked square on your board, eyeballing its position and making sure that the block is meeting or covering all edges and corners…place the ruler so that it is lined up with the cutting boards grid lines that you can see above and below the block, the fabric under the ruler is what will be cut off.

For the second cut spin the block and line up the first cut edge with one edge of the 9″ square marked by the arrows… place the ruler on the second edge again lining it up with the cutting boards grid lines that you can see above and below the block.

repeat for remaining edges which should leave you with a 9″ square block and because all the blocks are measured from the same marked square than all blocks should be of equal size…

that is unless some of the blocks are under size…Linda noticed from the photo that her block was not the full 9 inches and that she wasn’t square (see comments) but her Eeeeek will fade away when she sees how easily I can make her into the full 9” square…So watch this space for Part 3 – “how” to make Linda into a square….

Blocks for group quilts are inevitably different sizes and this one is no exception…the different sized blocks are more of a problem with traditional patchwork blocks, which have points that may need to be cut off, than what it is with CQ blocks and actually this lot or pretty good with only small variations in size of the embellished area, together with 1/2 inch seam allowances to play with my job easy.

In Their blogs today Linda described me as “(Genius and Goddess of Quilting)” and Sharon described me as “an expert assembler – with a passion for getting such things just right”…what they mean is that I will measure everything to the nth degree and that my corners will meet perfectly, even though they will be covered by the buttons that will hold the quilt layers together, other people would describe me as anal retentive LOL but when you know “how” it is really not difficult to get such things just right…

Note: I use a rotary cutter and board, if you don’t have this equipment you can follow along using your table where my board is and mark your fabric with a ruler and pencil, then use scissors to cut along the marked line.

Before starting

I marked a 9 inch square on my cutting board with black arrows. this can be done with a piece of masking tape if you don’t want to draw on your cutting board.

I made a plastic window template with the 8 inch finished size cut out and the 1/2 inch seam allowance lines marked onto it.

I pinned the block information to the pin board so that I could work with the blocks, you can see the contents of this one on Vivienne’s blog

Preparing Blocks

The First thing that I did with each block was to put the window template over it…

I could see at a glance wether the block was under or over size.

I could see where the maker intended the edge of the finished block to be.

And I could see any stitching that would need removeing from the finished size of the block.

The next thing that I did was to remove any stitching that would be visible on the finished size…

…and yes that does leave holes in the fabric, it marks some fabrics more than others and is easier to get out of some than what it is others…hint longer stitch lengths leave less marks (and are easier to pull out) and hand basting is much easier to remove and leaves far fewer marks on the fabric…

A gentle massage with your thumbnail or between your fingers will remove the holes from most fabrics.

For the more stuborn holes I used a damp cotton bud….hint do a test in the seam allowance to make sure that the water is not going to mark the fabric.

Most blocks had enough extra seam allowance that I could eyeball the first cut but some blocks, whilst their foundation was full size the patches only had 1/4 inch seams so there was no room for error, on those blocks small holes in the template, at the corners of the cutting lines, allowed me to mark the corners to make the first cut.

Blogging this is taking me longer than it is to make the quilt lol and it is again time for me to get some sleep…so watch this space dear friends for Part 2 How to trim blocks to size.