Monday, March 28, 2011

Paper Piece QAL - Week 2

ETA:
ACK! I just realized in the post below I talk about this being a 9x9" square and it's not! It finishes at 9.5"x9.5".  Please translate that when you read 9" below.  My apologies. To those that have already printed and enlarged their patterns, it's OKAY to finish this out using 9x9 inch squares. It just means more leftover fabric instead of not enough.  I'm sorry for the inconvience.

I'm sorry this post is a couple days late. With it being quarter end at work and March Madness here, I lost 2 days of the week to other stuff.

This week: Pattern preparation and cutting.  Say it with me, "yea!"

Preparing the Pattern:
1) Pring this pattern.  Use THIS LINK, not the picture below (and disregard the "A" in front of the letters, it means nothing).  I've set it up so if you print both pages at your normal printer settings (for normal 8.5"x11" paper), it should come out to look like each sheet pictured in the link.  You may have to "download" it first but it should still print as 2 pages. 
For my friends using A4 paper (thanks for asking Shevy!) I am not sure how to advise you the best way to print. There is another link below, a JPEG of the entire block but it prints (for me) as a 6"x6" square instead of 9"x9".  Here's the JPEG link.
UPDATE: Ms Pyjamas of Australia states she printed this and it came out at 6.75".  She then enlarged it by 31% and it came out to be 9" blocks.   Just get it as close to 9" as possible without going over too much and make all your blocks the same size and this will still work out with fabric requirements.

Once you print, fold one side on the line and tape the folded part to the matching line on the other sheet.  THEN MEASURE IT, please.  Each block should print up at 9"x9" with both sheets.


2) Put the block under one piece of tracing paper and using a ruler, trace all lines onto tracing paper (including the block outline). Add the numbers to the sections on your tracing paper.
3)  Now, you can repeat step 2 for all other pieces of tracing paper (if I have a 4-block quilt, I'll do that but if I have a 35 block quilt, I follow the following approach) or you can line up about 6 - 8 pieces of tracing paper ("TP" now b/c I'm tired of typing it) and pin them together securely.  Then, with the thread OUT of the sewing machine, use the needle to punch lines through all layers of the paper to create perforated line patterns on the other TP pieces.  If you have a machine that yells at you when you are trying to work without thread (like mine) the other alternative is to use the tool below and do the same thing, puncture each TP piece. However, you can only do 3 or 4 at a time with this method. 

If your eyesight is poor, I recommend following direction # 2 above. 
The last alternative, print the # of blocks you need from the printer. I only use this occasionally b/c (a) it's thicker paper and makes tearing away more difficult and (b) it uses a lot of  paper and ink.
4) Once all sections are marked with perforated lines or actual, drawn lines, be sure to number them all.  Pay attention and be sure you don't accidently turn blocks upside down before numbering.   Set aside. 

Cutting the fabric:
NOTE 1: Since there are so many options, I'm not breaking cutting down by each quilt. I'm giving you the cutting requirements for each block. You determine how many pieces you need by the # of sections in each block x the number of blocks with that color scheme. In one version, I have 3 yellow blocks.  3 yellow blocks times 2 sections of the medium, dark yellow = 6 med., dark yellow pieces total.

NOTE 2:  Reminder, once we are done, there will be waste from the fabric cuts. This can be reduced with PP practice but because we have newbies, I want to be sure struggling with angling fabric is NOT part of this QAL. Plan to pass your scraps to a friend who likes applique if you don't applique yourself.  That's the best advise I can offer.

A) Cut fabric for sections as listed below.
Section 3 = 5 1/2" x 10"
Section 8 = 5 1/2" x 10"
Sections 1 & 5 = 4 1/4 x 8 1/4"
Sections 2 & 4 = 4 1/4 x 8 1/4"
Sections 6 & 7 = 4 1/4 x 8 1/4"

Examples of cut sections for my yellow blocks.


B) You can cut borders now if you don't already have them cut and (please refer to week 1 post for the measurements you need) but I always wait until the end to cut those. I tend to measure better.

That's it for this week, folks. Next week, we will begin piecing. I will post every Monday from here on out! Let me know if you have any questions and please remember to post progress on our Flickr group. :-)


Cheers!
Beck

7 comments:

Shevvy said...

Is there any chance of you creating the template to fit an A4 page as the whole thing will fit on them? They are bigger than the standard paper size you us in the states. cheers

Barb said...

Wow....you are doing such a fantastic job on your quilt along.

Sarcastic Quilter said...

LOL - keep it up, Barb, and I'm going to send you flowers!

Shay said...

OK I got the block printed out ..even if I am from a whole other country and you tried to trick me by not using Australian paper sizes...

I downloaded the block and enlarged it to 131% on a photocopier and it came out to just a smidge over 9 inches. Im happy with that...it's the cutting Im sure I'll make a hash of.

Expect many emails ! Love you...

Karen said...

Well, I don't know what my printer is doing to your template, but I'm getting a finished block size of 7¼" when I print with no scaling and a finished size of 6.75" when I set the printing to printable area. I am using 8½ x 11" paper. Help! Thanks!

Shevvy said...

When I went to print this I realised I was being a total muppet - our UK paper is longer than the US but not wider! So the whole thing won't fit. However, I decided for ease to leave it at the size it comes out of 7.5 inches and have that as my block size. It will be easier for me to just print them all off rather that using tracing paper (as I don't have any)!

Paulette said...

The PDF also prints for me at 7.5 inches. I've to enlarge it, and I can enlarge it on the screen, but it prints out the same, even with my printer set to no scale.

I have an idea/request: Could you please take your 9-inch template and measure in inches along the four sides to where the lines intersect the sides of the square, let me know what those measurements are, and then I can draw the lines from there? Thanks!