That Elusive 1/4" Seam
That perfect 1/4" seam, we often take it granted. It does make a difference!
A dear friend of mine has often said, she always sews a complete project on the same sewing machine. I thought it shouldn't make a difference, but yes it does.
Alas, 1/4" feet are not all the same from machine to machine, especially when you are sewing on different brands of sewing machines.
I started my Scrap Basket Sampler on my newer Pfaff machine. It has an adjustable needle position that moves in small increments. This is a valuable feature. My classroom machine at home is also a Pfaff with the same adjustable needle feature. At home when I am switching between machines, I know the adjustments for each machine to get that perfect 1/4" seam.
But alas at my vacation home, I have an inexpensive Brother machine that I thought didn't have an adjustable needle position that moved in small increments. Read the manual Susan! Depending on the choice of two straight stitches, yes it does have the same feature. I had been merrily sewing along assuming that I couldn't adjust the needle position in small increments. I have owned this machine for over 5 years and only found this feature this past week.
As a result, I had to resew, 32 - 2 1/2" squares into a long strip to get the correct length for a row of my quilt. Lesson learned, know your sewing machine.
On to Step 3!
This step hints at the overall design of the quilt and starts to show the movement in this quilt.
Ghosting, It can be a Problem
As I have been working with some lighter fabrics, the instructions for the strip sets have you pressing the seam allowances open.
Ghosting can be a real problem. Ghosting is when the seam allowances of a darker adjacent fabric show through to the right side of a lighter fabric. By pressing the seam allowances open, it is only the seam allowance from the same fabric that shows through to the right side. In my quilt, I have been using precuts of Pond fabric by Elizabeth Hartman. What is surprising in this line of fabric has several light fabrics and a white on black print - a real nightmare for Ghosting.
Additionally, with the HSTs, we end up with a lot of bulk at some points in this quilt. By pressing the seam allowances open, we reduce the amount of bulk where the strip sets meet the HSTs.
"Natural Direction" for Pressing Seam Allowances
It's often easier to press seam allowances in one direction than another direction.
A good example of this is when you are sewing the 6 1/2" x 2 1/2" joined HSTs to the 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" or 6 1/2" x 16 1/2"strip sets in steps 7 and 8. The seams just want to be pressed towards the strip sets. The diagonal seams in the joined HSTs create more bulk as compared to the strip sets with the open pressed seams.
So, do press the seams towards the strip sets.
A rule of thumb that I use, press towards the block or unit with the fewest seams.
Enjoy this step and don't forget to post your step 3 on the Facebook Group - Modern Blended Quilts - Virtual and Tell or Instagram using the hashtag #scrapbasketquiltalong.
Download the instructions for Step 3 from the link below:
Scrap Basket Quilt Along Step 3
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