...mutter mutter...Help?

I have heard that you can do that. Whatever works for you to achieve the
seam allowance that gives you a perfect sized block and helps you keep that
allowance consistent, do it!
Diana

"me" wrote in message
...
This may be a stupid question, but can't you use the 1/4 " foot and then
just move the needle one position to the right to create the scant? Can
you tell I'm a newbie?


Leslie in Missouri wrote:
I'm a rebel. I do NOT recommend this idea for everyone, but it has
worked for me for many, many years. My various Janomes have all had the
"quarter-inch foot"- which I love... with it's little bit of metal to
butt the fabric against as you sew- and it sews a "full" quarter inch
seam. To compensate for the "full" and to make like a "scant", I have
always just cut my fabric pieces a teeny tad larger than the true
measurements. Again, I do NOT recommend this, but if y'all wanted to
try it, maybe you wouldn't have to fool with "scants" ever again.....
like me! ;-)

Leslie, always making trouble! LOL

The HairyFacedOnes 'N Me- My dogs aren't my whole life...they make my
life whole.

RCTQ- Houston 2004..... A good friend will come and bail you out of
jail.... but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...
that was fun!"




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me wrote:

This may be a stupid question, but can't you use the 1/4 " foot and then
just move the needle one position to the right to create the scant? Can
you tell I'm a newbie?

Some of us (like me) don't have sewing machines that let you move the
needle.

I can't lower my feed dogs either.

-georg

me wrote:
This may be a stupid question, but can't you use the 1/4 " foot and then
just move the needle one position to the right to create the scant? Can
you tell I'm a newbie?
I think my Elna has the same foot as Leslie's Janome. That wouldn't work
on my machine, because the 1/4" foot is a straight stitch foot; moving
the needle would cause it to hit the foot. I try to add a bit when
cutting by positioning the ruler so that the entire width of the mark is
on the fabric. It works for me.

Julia in MN

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http://mail.chartermi.net/~jaccola/

Hi Leslie:

I do the same thing. I would rather trim a block to the correct size
(if it ends up too large) than have to deal with a block that is too
small. I over-cut pretty much everything, especially when I am
cutting triangles.

Mardi

On Sat, 29 May 2004 22:56:59 -0500, (Leslie in
Missouri) wrote:

I'm a rebel. I do NOT recommend this idea for everyone, but it has
worked for me for many, many years. My various Janomes have all had the
"quarter-inch foot"- which I love... with it's little bit of metal to
butt the fabric against as you sew- and it sews a "full" quarter inch
seam. To compensate for the "full" and to make like a "scant", I have
always just cut my fabric pieces a teeny tad larger than the true
measurements. Again, I do NOT recommend this, but if y'all wanted to
try it, maybe you wouldn't have to fool with "scants" ever again.....
like me! ;-)

Leslie, always making trouble! LOL

The HairyFacedOnes 'N Me- My dogs aren't my whole life...they make my
life whole.

RCTQ- Houston 2004..... A good friend will come and bail you out of
jail.... but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...
that was fun!"

Real e-mail address spelled out to prevent spam. mardi at mardiweb dot com.
____________________

My Quilting page: http://www.mardiweb.com/quilts/MardiQuilts.html
Paint Shop Pro tutorials: http://www.mardiweb.com/web
Low-Fat Lifestyle Forum: http://www.mardiweb.com/lowfat

This may be a stupid question, but can't you use the 1/4 " foot and
then just move the needle one position to the right to create the scant?
Can you tell I'm a newbie?

Kathy-

That was an excellent question! Yep, you can surely do that, but you
prolly don't know- yet!- how ornery I am and that I live on pain meds
that make me rather..... ummmmm... "entertaining" at times? vbg I
got into the habit of doing the "cutting a tad larger" when my first
Janome didn't have the capabilities of moving the needle to the right-
only to the left for some strange reason- and I just stuck with the
habit that worked rather than trying to teach my poor ol' brain a new
trick at my advanced age (the "old dogs/new tricks" thingy applies
here... I'm about three-quarters dog!). ;-)))))

For those of you who have machines that don't have a "moveable" needle,
sometimes you can override that by setting the zig-zag to a narrow width
while you are on the straight stitch setting. Most Janomes will do this
and I suspect many other makes will as well- altho my first Janome only
would adjust to the left when I tried this trick on it. But then.....
maybe you could use another foot that was narrower and add a slight left
adjustment and it would all work out??? Ouch! My brain is getting
sore!

Leslie and The Much-Loved Furbabies

The HairyFacedOnes 'N Me- My dogs aren't my whole life...they make my
life whole.

RCTQ- Houston 2004..... A good friend will come and bail you out of
jail.... but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...
that was fun!"

georg wrote:

me wrote:

This may be a stupid question, but can't you use the 1/4 " foot and
then just move the needle one position to the right to create the
scant? Can you tell I'm a newbie?


Some of us (like me) don't have sewing machines that let you move the
needle.

I can't lower my feed dogs either.

-georg

And I can move the needle like anything, BUT not with the quarter inch
foot on as it has a round hole...

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Leslie in Missouri wrote:
This may be a stupid question, but can't you use the 1/4 " foot and

then just move the needle one position to the right to create the scant?
Can you tell I'm a newbie?

Kathy-

That was an excellent question! Yep, you can surely do that, but you
prolly don't know- yet!- how ornery I am and that I live on pain meds
that make me rather..... ummmmm... "entertaining" at times? vbg I
got into the habit of doing the "cutting a tad larger" when my first
Janome didn't have the capabilities of moving the needle to the right-
only to the left for some strange reason- and I just stuck with the
habit that worked rather than trying to teach my poor ol' brain a new
trick at my advanced age (the "old dogs/new tricks" thingy applies
here... I'm about three-quarters dog!). ;-)))))

Actually, that's what I do and I don't know if this old dog could
learn to cut any other way either. And, Kate's right, as usual. Can't
move the needle on the Viking as the 1/4" foot has a hole rather than a
slit.

For those of you who have machines that don't have a "moveable" needle,
sometimes you can override that by setting the zig-zag to a narrow width
while you are on the straight stitch setting. Most Janomes will do this
and I suspect many other makes will as well- altho my first Janome only
would adjust to the left when I tried this trick on it. But then.....
maybe you could use another foot that was narrower and add a slight left
adjustment and it would all work out??? Ouch! My brain is getting
sore!

Yeah, but the quarter inch foot has that nice ridge thingie that helps
keep the fabric going straight. I need all the help I can get. As my
husband would say, "It's two dozen of one, six of another." He can
never remember that cliche.

Leslie and The Much-Loved Furbabies

The HairyFacedOnes 'N Me- My dogs aren't my whole life...they make my
life whole.

RCTQ- Houston 2004..... A good friend will come and bail you out of
jail.... but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...
that was fun!"

I like to nest seams. That gives me accurate piecing (most of the time).
How do you achieve this if you press open? I can only make it work
better if it is a central point, e.g. when piecing sofia's quilt some
blocks are a square in a square that had to be sewn to a flying goose -
it helped to iron those open... but then I didn't know what to do when I
had to sew the together to other put together blocks...


Ellison wrote:

Howdy!
Well, that is, of course, her opinion. g

The oldest top I've quilted was HANDpieced in the 1920s;
those seams were strong and held up just fine.
I've handpieced quilt tops for years just because I prefer
handwork to machine work; I machine piece for speed,
get better points and curves by hand.

"residue of handpiecing"? "weakness is covered up" *snort*
What a thing to say. LOL

My quilt tops lie flat just fine, w/ the seams pressed to the side.
I get the results I want while (usually) pressing to the side.

[I don't make clothing, so never worry about those seams; most
of my clothing has a serged seam which doesn't necessarily lie flat
and is not pressed open. g]

Your aunt has the strength of her convictions; hooray for what
works for her. ;-) Pretty quilts.

Ragmop/Sandy



"Kathy Applebaum" wrote in message
. com...

Some quilters view pressing seams open as a heresy, punishable by the

Quilt

Police. I've been told that the seams will split open (never had that
happen), that the batting will migrate through (never had that happen),

and

that plagues of locusts will descend (never had that happen, either.)

I think it comes from hand piecing. I don't hand piece, never will, but

the

quilt tops I get that are hand pieced are not as "tightly" sewn as a

machine

done seam is. And I don't think they can be -- just the nature of the

beast.

So a hand seam pressed open might have all the above problems. But my
machine sewn seams don't, and there are enough advantages for me that I'll
stick with pressing open, thank you.

What are those advantages, you might ask? The quilt top lays flatter (I'm
very anal retentive about this), it's easier to match points, never any
problem about which side is the "dark" side, and there's less bulk at the
intersections. I also find it's easier to get the seam pressed fully open,
which makes for more accurate sizes. It doesn't take me any longer to

press

open than it does to one side, but I've been pressing open for a long

time,

so I've gotten good at it.

Why press to one side? Several "Big Name Quilters" have told me that they
use it to control which fabrics appear to be in the foreground and which

are

in the background. It seemed to work in their quilts, but I do that

through

the quilting -- I think it's just a difference in approach. Paper piecing
used to require pressing to one side, but I don't have to any more now

that

I took Judy Mathieson's freezer paper piecing class. And some people are
just more comfortable with pressing to one side, which is the best reason

of

all. (After all, quilting should be fun!)

For an even longer set of reasons to press open, see
http://quilting.about.com/library/we...ms=mabry+quilt .

In

the interest of full disclosure, I will say that the article was written

by

my aunt, who was the one who first brow-beat, er persuaded, me into

pressing

open. And if you scroll down about half way, the quilt "Mill Wheel" is on

my

bed right now. *grin* (And also, I do NOT believe that she resisted

saying

"no, no!" in that class. She's just not capable of resisting the

temptation.

*evil grin*)
--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
longarm machine quilting, Queen of Fabric Tramps
http://www.kayneyquilting.com ,
remove the obvious to reply




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Ambassador of Extraordinary Aliens
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali
(take the dog out before replying)

BTW, I find that pressing seams open is more difficult. maybe I don't
know how to iron well, but pressing them to the side is easy, they want
to go that way. but when pressing open, I sometimes get wrinkles when
the fabric does not open all the way through....


--
Dr. Quilter
Ambassador of Extraordinary Aliens
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali
(take the dog out before replying)

georg wrote:
I like Mary Ellen (something)'s approach better. She talks about PPM -
personal piecing measurement. Whatever you use for a seam size should
not matter - scant or not- what matters is that you are consistent and
sew a straight seam. This should give good results.

is that true? It makes sense if you are making a 4 patch, or a 9 patch,
or in fact anything that has one shape overall or no matching corners.
the blocks will all be a tad smaller or larger.

but what if you are making a more complicated pattern, e.g. where the
tip in the middle of one block has to align with a corner in the other,
which has different patches to it? won't it make a difference?

of course it doesn't if you draw your patches, and then sew on the seam
line, you can leave a 1" seam allowance if you so wish, but if you
rotary cut and then sew at a certain, X distance from the edge, won't it
make a difference in those cases?

--
Dr. Quilter
Ambassador of Extraordinary Aliens
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali
(take the dog out before replying)