Monday, August 30, 2010

Cobwebs

This is my block for September. I found it in a book I have and it is similar to the Spider web block.This will be paper pieced. Four 6.5 inch blocks to make one 12.5 inch block. I would like each of you to make two of these so I will be sending 8 already printed. I hope that I can explain all of this so that you can understand it. I have photos too.



After trimming the paper down to within 1/8th of an inch all the way around I folded the paper on the angles so it was easier to tell where the wedge is. You will sew the strips to this part first then put the side pieces on.Because this paper is not easy to see thorough I sewed my strips on the back and pretended that I was not paper piecing. I have drawn a mark on the back so that I would be able to get the strip straight. Then so that I would have that randomness, not sure that is a word, placement of the strips I drew a line under it and varied the measurement of this line on each block so that I could vary the rest of the strips. If that makes sense. In other words, I didn't want to start them all in the same spot. You need to start at that line, marked with an * on the paper and place your fabric below that one then you can start filling in the top and the bottom part of the wedge.



I started to put 7 pieces of fabric for each block in the packets then I did a couple more blocks and thought I should add a few more pieces of fabric. I did most of mine with 8 pieces of fabric. One had 7 and a couple of them had more but the 8 is a good amount to put in there so you can vary the widths of the strips. Please if anyone needs a little more fabric do not hesitate to email me and I will get some right out to you. I know that may be a pain but I just wasn't sure about all of this since this is my first Bee.

After you have the wedge filled with strips, not sure why I didn't take a photo of that. Place the side pieces on one at a time and sew the normal way you would paper piece, flip and sew. You can see that I pinned mine on the back far enough away from the seam line(because it was underneath) so it wouldn't wreck my machine when I stitched it. Please use a small stitch length. I used 1.5 on my machine. If you can't shorten your stitch length then use a bigger needle. The paper should tear off very easily using the smaller stitch length, better than the perforations on some of the bills we get in the mail. You do not need to tear the paper off. I will do that later. If it does tear off as a couple pieces of mine did don't worry about it.

Putting the blocks together after trimming them. I am thinking that seams open would be a good idea but I am not sure as I have not sewn 4 of them together yet. If your corners are a bit bigger like mine here then the seams pressed to one side should be fine. I know I should have but it just didn't happen yet. I was more concerned with getting this all written up and on here.
 Well Blogger  wasn't too helpful today with the placing of the photos  so I hope you can all get the idea anyway.
 If you have any questions please email me. Here is what the block will look like. I will be mailing the packets out on Wednesday. Thanks Ladies! You do not need to follow the lines for the middle section. Those are there just to let you know that the strips go there. That I had done for myself when I made the block up. The packets went out today 9/1/10.
Cobweb Block

3 comments:

  1. Marlene,
    I think I get this. I'm not a great paper piecer, but I just finished a string block for Leanne.

    So, if I understand properly, I can stitch and flip the center wedge as long as I am sure the strips are straight and they overlap the creases in the paper where the side wedges will be sewn. Is that it?

    Thanks!

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  2. yes, you will see so much better when you get the packet. If you hold the paper to the light you will be just fine doing it on the right side. I drew the line on the wrong side(back) of the paper, while I held it up to the light. The fold helps you to see the wedge but you can draw those lines on too if you want. It would make it easier. If you have any other questions just email me.

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  3. very nice block.such pretty fabrics also

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