Yes, indeed I was a bad Farmer's Wife.....you see, I broke the rules and ended up having to mend my ways. Thank goodness I was set straight by a fellow wifer! (??) Does that sound right? I'm not sure, but at least my story has a good ending. ;)
I know my blocks look well now, but it didn't come without a trial and error.
My big mistake was not cutting the corners on my templates! For my first three blocks it didn't affect the outcome of the blocks, so I surely thought my short cut was a handy-dandy one! When I happily began my Evening Star block, my smile slowly faded away and I was left with a block that wasn't matching up.
What ever could it be I pondered? When alas, I was assured it was that I needed to cut my template corners! (thanks c!)
And so I did......
So, what? We need to 'not cut corners' by 'cutting the corners'? huh?
I admit, I was skeptical, it didnt' seem such a little thing could actually make that big of a difference.....after all, my first three had turned out. But away I went at unpicking my block and re-doing my triangles with the corners cut as the templates show.
And what do you know?! Things were matching up! Like magic I tell ya.
This one below is what happens when you don't clip your template corners:
My side piece is too long for my center piece......
See how the clipped corners help you line everything up.....
It's not always how you think you should line them up! I was surprised at how it was different.
This next picture shows how before, I didn't have room for the seam allowance. When I sewed this peice on, it covered up my white point. Bad news. You can kind of see where I had to unpick this.
This next picture is done correctly, with the corners clipped from my template. Everything lined up and there is room for my seam allowance and my white point won't be covered up! yay! Perfect-O.
And finally, a happy block!
EVENING STAR {31}
Of course I will now always cut the corners off my templates, as shown.
BOWTIE {10}
CALICO PUZZLE {16}
See, I told you it was a happy ending.....
No more bad wifing for me. If you're getting frustrated with your blocks not matching up, maybe you just need to mend your non-cutting-corners-ways...
Just sayin. ;)
Tasha
