Friday, March 18, 2011

Bee Block Fiasco

I caught up on most of my bee blocks, like this plaid one for Rick in the Sewn Together Bee...

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And then I ran into a major road block. This month in the Red and Aqua 2 Bee Kelly asked for a "Bliss"ful Dresden Plate block. Although the Dresden Plate is a very traditional block I have always wanted to try making one. In fact I considered having one of my bees make a dresden plate for me when it was my month but I decided against it in the end. So I dove into this block with vigor. And it came together easily until I set the finished ring on the table...

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...Yeah, it's not laying flat. Something, obviously went very wrong. How did this happen? I checked the seams. They're all 1/4". I swear! I used my 1/4" foot and then I measured each seam after I discovered this snafu. All the pieces were pre-cut so it's not a cutting error. And I have triple checked that there are only the desired 20 spires. Help! What did I do wrong? And what do I do to rectify this? Because the only solution I see right now is to start taking in the seams individually until I can get the darn thing to lay flat.

4 comments:

  1. Hey Hollie, I had the same problem with the Dresden block. I just ironed it as flat as possible and sewed it onto the white fabric and I think it was OK if you look at my photo. If your seams look like they are all even, I would try that.

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  2. what a shame it's not laying flat. I count 20...are there supposed to be 20?

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  3. I also had the same problem with a dresden for a bee block. The person who assigned the block said it was fine - she said some just lie flatter than others. My biggest worry was that she would have trouble quilting it, but it seems to be a very common thing with dresdens.

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  4. do you have a push pin-able ironing board? pin in at the four quarters and ease the outer edge flat. the center circle may expand sufficiently. steam it to death. smush, steam. smush, steam.

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