I planned on making one block a week from Susan Briscoe’s ‘125 Japanese Quilt Blocks’, but after a night of cutting out Japanese fabric for three of the blocks, I ended up making more than one just today!
Block 1 – Yosegi nikuzushi (simple pairs)
Block 2 – Yosegi gokuzushi (simple fives)
My goodness these fabrics are tricky little… things! All cut on the grain, but they behave as if cut on the bias. I mean, I do my HSTs the alternative way which means they’re on the bias, and they cause me no trouble whatsoever! But these?! They’re a mix of fabrics – some are “normal” cottons, others are yukata cottons, and others are even tenugui (Japanese cotton hand towels). They’re supposed to be 9.5″ unfinished… Block 1 came out alright, but block 2 I had to trim down to 8.75″! Sigh. I’m thinking I’ll have to wait until the end and hopefully have half at 9.5″ and half at 8.5″ – framed up to 9.5″.
Beth says
That happens to me too! They look great though!
Cherie says
They are gorgeous blocks, I’m loving those prints. That has happened to me a lot I don’t know what goes wrong in sewing how it ends up the wrong size =D
Susan Briscoe says
Very pretty fabric choices! The second block has a lot of seams in it – double check that your seam allowance is just a quarter inch (some ‘quarter inch’ feet, especially those with the ‘blade’ feature at the side, let you take a slightly generous seam). Also, give your blocks a really thorough press – once again, it’s surprising how much fabric gets taken up if the blocks aren’t well pressed 🙂