On this week’s Design Wall post I mentioned I had a swap block measuring 1/2″ bigger than the rest of the blocks and I needed a solution to include it in the quilt.
I had a few options
- chop off points big time
- remake the block
- make a new block
- find another solution
I opted to find another solution as each of the other options just weren’t going to work for one reason or another. Admittedly some of the points got chopped off — but that’s true for several of the blocks in the quilt. But with this solution I just lost the tips — not 1/2 of the triangle!
This is not the block, but I wanted to show this picture to show how I attach the cornerstones and sashing to the blocks.
By doing it this way, I can work the quilt in sections.
The first thing I did was frame the block with the sashing fabric.
See — some points still cut off, but not really noticable unless you are looking for them. Next, I trimmed the block to 8 1/2″ square. This number is the correct size of block + sashing on all sides + seam allowance.
Then I cut 4 cornerstones, turning under the edge on two sides.
These were appliqued (yes, there’s that word) to the corner of the block, matching raw edges.
See how the squares ‘creep’ into the block? I don’t think this would have worked if the block didn’t have light corners.
I did not trim away the sashing. I’m not worried about the extra thickness because this will be machine quilted — eventually.
In this detail picture the fix nearly disappears and of course in the picture of the full quilt, I’m not sure you can see it if you didn’t know where to look.
This solution worked for me because of the layout design and the light corners on the block which was too large.
Another solution which would have worked had I realized this BEFORE I started the alternate blocks would have been to frame ALL the blocks and square them to 7 1/2″ finished and made the alternate blocks 7 1/2″.
I made a set of block several years ago that were supposed to measure 7 1/2″ and they were all over the place size wise. I framed all those blocks, then squared them ‘wonky’. Quilt 1 Quilt 2 Although I’m not sure if I would use the same colors today, I don’t think you can tell that the blocks are not the same size.
In my SBS Sarah’s Chioce blocks I had soem that were too small and too big. They will go into the strip with the siggy squares on the back.
Very creative solution! 🙂
Judy
Very nice answer to your problem. We put together a Dear Hannah quilt last year for a guild raffle quilt and since the blocks were all over the 6 1/2 they were supposed to be, we added the sashing to two sides and cut them all to the same size. The sashing was the same as the background so visually it looked like all the blocks were the same size. Magic!
its a great fix–even looking right at it I wouldn’t see it.