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| Daisy Baby Quilt by Piper Girls |
My first quilt was the adorable Daisy Baby pictured. The pic is their quilt, and it is available in
a free pattern by Piper Girls (click that text for link). It consists of 30 featured fabric blocks (cut and pieced to make a criss cross diamond), set in alternating rows of background fabric.
Though touted as "beginner friendly", in my view it is not first time quilt friendly. Why? As a first quilt, there is so much cutting and piecing that without those precision skills acquired by trying one's hand at a more accessible quilt, there are a few places where things can go wrong. The measurements, cutting and piecing produce what is needed--a 5" block with NO ability to trim down to perfect size.
Cutting:
- 5" squares are cut in half. No big deal, right? Big deal. As a beginner, you may not know (I took it for granted!) that those 5" squares are sometimes NOT 5". Measure first. Trim as needed. Avoid tears.
- Assuming your squares are 5", any wibble-wobble in either measuring or cutting the squares in half (30 times) will get noticed.
- Bias: Each of the corner setting triangles and the side setting triangles have lots of bias. Without any of the typical forewarnings on handling bias, you might get some stretch (= error)
Sewing & Piecing:
- Each cut square is joined by a 1" piece of fabric. Precision cutting + precision piecing + precision ironing are required. My first-time skills in each were lacking.
- The 2 halves are yet again joined by another 1" piece of fabric which creates the cross. All of the above apply.
- Each of those squares are set on point, and must be precisely pieced. To get the perfect join.
- This piecing greatly benefits from a scant (v. true) 1/4" seam.
On my first quilt, my successive joining of rows compounded all of my errors in ways that required me to take in seam allowances of the next rows of blocks to have a chance of something "reasonable". (This was NOT fun). And on the final row, I was 1/2 inch short on a side setting triangle. After much hand wringing, I elected that the only way to fix it was to cover the error with a pocket on the quilt. Yup. It worked.
My binding was pitiful...but that has nothing to do with the quilt pattern...but was a skill absence level. Sharon Schamber's excellent video cured me of poor binding. Now, my bindings look quite good! Even with all of the abominations I experienced in making my first quilt, I gifted the quilt, and the receipient loved it.
The GOOD NEWS:
Yesterday, I decided to pull the pattern out again and make a quilt.
It turned out mostly PERFECT (except I miss pieced a pair unit backwards
and did not unpick the mistake). Using this quilt as a first time entree into the quilting world, (and my failures along the way), I was able to fashion an approach to fix my cutting, piecing and pressing errors. This second time around, I had some insights that I wanted to share (and memorialize for myself) to make this pattern easier and quicker.
The most important thing to understand about this pattern is that each finished block (and you have several components) measures 5". There is no ROOM for error--no squaring up...nada. With the cuts and seams, it is nearly impossible to have a perfectly square block measuring 5". Therein lies the rub with this quilt, and why I don't recommend for a beginner. Cutting, piecing and sewing need to be done perfectly, not just good.
Here are some strategies that I employed for my second making of this delightful quilt.
- 5" charm packs are not always 5". My 5" charm pack squares were slight rectangles by about 1/8". They had to be trimmed to a perfect 5" square.
- Side setting and corner setting triangles are on bias...handle with care...and cut a wee bit larger. Because of the problems that I had with my first quilt, I cut the corner and setting triangle squares slightly larger so that I could trim my block down.
- Easing. Get comfortable with taking gentle command of your fabric. It will comply...but if you are too forceful...you will lose. Find right balance.
- Seam allowance. If you have a sporadic 1/4" seam, you'll not be happy. I had a couple of lazy 1/4 inch seams (tapered at end), and I immediately picked them to the waivering point and resewed.
- Press mindfully! (If you hate ironing, treat it as a lesson in
mindfulness and call it your ironing meditation.) I had a couple of
blocks with initially imperceivable pressing errors--until I tried to
piece to the next block. Once noticed, (and corrected), it righted the
block's attachment to its next partner.
Below is my more confidently and ably made Daisy Baby Quilt--in the form of a top only...it's not finished yet. I added a border to each side to make a more squarish quilt. Even with care (and notwithstanding my mispiecing in a spot), I have a couple of 'goofy' things. But nothing that any would really notice. This quilt was made using 5" charm packs (featured fabric (FF)) that I purchased at Tuesday Morning. I chose white as my background fabric (BF). Though they have a limited selection, you can find some very good deals on godd (and some high-quality) fabrics. This collection all came in 2.5" strip packs. Previously, I had used those strip packs to make lovely strip-pieced snack mats as gifts....but they are 2.5" inches....Hmmmm....
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| My 2nd Whack at Daisy Baby Quilt |
I really love this pattern--most particularly because as I made it a second time, I had some insights to save time and frustration. I will make many quilts from it. Because this pattern uses 5" squares--with as much or little variability in fabric as you like--as I was putting this quilt together, I noted that
2.5" strips can easily be used. Using 2.5" precuts adds a great deal of opportunities! I used 5 fabrics, but you could use as many as you like--to include changing up the criss crosses!. at the end of this post I have a nice method for providing for sequencing using 5 feature fabrics.Though I must admit that I had a piecing error, that violated the sequence. I still need to work on a better way to do continuous piecing and not get discombobulated by the order of things.
For strip piecing using 2.5" strips to create a 5" finished block use at least 5 different feature fabrics (FF), do the following for each of your FF:
- Create a strip set of 2.5" FF, 1" BF, 2.5" FF as follows:
- Take one strip of 30" x 2.5" FF and sew to 1 strip of 30" x 1" background fabric (BF). Set seam and press to (BF) (even if lighter).
- Sew second strip of 30"x 2.5" to the BF side of your unit. Press to BF.
- Carefully press the entire unit. Get that entire seam pressed flat, flat, flat.
- You now have a strip unit with the 1" background BF (now .5" finished) nestled between two FF strips.
- Straighten the 30" finished unit out on your rotary mat. Time spent here means less frustration later. Carefully measure and cut 2.5" segments. Line your ruler with the top of the strip and a seam line. This will give you 12 units from each of your 5 FF strip units (for a total of 60 units that will be joined via sashing to create 30 blocks). Separate your FF units into two piles of six. (I used my Creative Grids Stripology Ruler...one of the single most important tools on my cutting table).
- Time to stitch! Using the continuous sashing method, take 1 unit from pile 1 and sew to the continuous BF until you are finished with pile 1. Trim the sashing even with the blocks using scissors or a ruler and rotatry cutter. Set and press seam toward BF. For each of the 6 blocks, sew its mate from the second pile. Take some care to get your block square. You can line up the middle of the top block with the bottom block to ensure that your criss cross is not crooked. In no time you will have completed your block.
- Squaring up....there is so little room in these measurements, that you will have little to no excess to trim off. If you take care on your seam allowance and your pressing. you'll be fine.
The pattern gives all of the other needful directions.
I used 5 fabrics which created 5 columns of 6 rows. To disperse 5 FF block units without making your head hurt or your eyes go all googly, I used a scheme that takes consideration of placement of the first row of squares (give some thought to this layout row). To get successive row sequencing, take the middle FF block (F#3) of the first row, and it becomes the first block of the 2nd row. Use sequential sequencing of blocks starting at F1-F5 and loop back to F1 to complete the sequence for the number of feature fabric blocks that you need to completed the row. (If you look at my quilt pic, you will note that I pieced something out of sequence!)
Row 1: F1, F2, F3, F4, F5 (F3 is middle block, it goes to head of R2)
Row 2: F3, F4, F5, F1, F2 (F5 is middle block, it goes to head of R3)
Row 3: F5, F1, F2, F3, F4 (F2 is middle block, it goes to head of R4)
Row 4: F2, F3, F4, F5, F1 (F4 is middle block, it goes to head of R5)
Row 5: F4, F5, F1, F2, F3 (F1 is middle block, it goes to head of R6)
Row 6: F1, F2, F3, F4, F5
This systematized randomization (if there is such a thing!) Worked really well. I will use this scheme in future quilts to help with dispersal in using patterns such as this.
As you look at the quilt, you can see that you can do a number of things to personalize this pattern.
- You need 30 squares, and you can use as many fabrics as you like.
- Each criss-cross could have 2 pairs of fabrics--you would need to plan your strip units accordingly and have your preferred pairing in each strip unit. when you join, your units, you will need to rotate the mate so that you have opposing fabrics Top/Bottom and Bottom/Top when you sew them togther.
- You could use consider alternate uses of BF.
- You could consider some applique on your background.
- To re-size the quilt you could
- Add more rows and columns
- You could create sashed clusters of smaller variations. The pattern gives you the corner and side setting triangle sizes; accordingly, you can configure any number of lovely schemas using fewer rows or columns.
- You could use a SINGLE row of these diamonds in the sashing to create a lovely border on any of your larger quilts using leftover strips of 2.5" fabrics. You would simply use 2 corners at the top and bottom and side triangels in between....Also using these as sashed columns in a quilt would be quite lovely.
I hope that gives you some inspiration.
