Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Catching Up on Park Bench

When I learned that my local quilt shop was offering Jaybird QuiltsPark Bench BOM, it was hard to refuse. Not only would I be working with one of Julie Herman’s fantastic designs, but it would also be an excuse to buy some fancy rulers and sew with Carolyn Friedlander’s Botanics line.


I dutifully picked up my March BOM kit and then my April BOM kit and my May BOM kit—without so much as cutting a piece of fabric. Now knee-deep in June, it was time to play catch-up. Of course, once I cracked open the pattern book, I learned that I was not just three but six blocks behind. BAH!

It’s pretty rewarding to leave the land of squares and triangles and work with hexagons and half-hexagons, diamonds and what Julie calls “jewels.” There are some triangles, to be sure, but working with triangles cut with the Sidekick ruler are way easier to piece than others.

I am going to have to head back to my LQS to pick up some more yardage today. I managed to scorch a diamond for March and miscut some half-triangles for April. (Oh, and I need to pick up the June BOM kit!)

That’s where the readers of Freshly Pieced and Sew Fresh Quilts come in. I’ve made a point to get better about using my iron and encountered some problems. When working on my Farmer’s Market quilt, for example, I used steam that actually made some of the colors in the precuts bleed. I’ve stopped using steam as a result but encountered the whole scorching issue with Park Bench.

My question to you: What’s your take on ironing? (Yeah, yeah. I know: no ironing, just pressing.) What brand is your iron? What method brings about the most success?

11 comments:

  1. Oof! Tough questions! ;) I always use steam, but my iron (a Sunbeam--purchased when I couldn't afford anything fancier, but it's still working so I still use it) has three levels of steam and I usually have it on the lower of the three settings. I scorched a beautiful dove grey wool suit once upon a time and won't take that risk again. I haven't encountered your bleeding colors problem, but it seems it would be an easier one to tackle than the scorching. Your block looks beautiful, though! :)

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    1. My Sunbeam was on high steam when the bleeding occurred. Maybe I just need to be a bit more judicious with the steam and make sure I'm on the "cotton" setting. (I suspect I was on the higher "linen" one.) Thx!

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  2. Oooh, I love this take on the hexie using triangles; very fun and nice colours, too.

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    1. I'm smitten, too. It's so satisfying to see these blocks come together.

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  3. I use an "AEG - for safety" (a german brand) with two levels of steam and it is working fine.

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  4. It's looking great! At first I thought it may have been paper pieced or epp.

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  5. Looks great. I always use steam, haven't had a problem yet!

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  6. This is a gorgeous quilt - I bought the pattern only and I'm waiting till baby is a bit older so I can really enjoy these blocks! Good luck catching up!

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  7. This is just beautiful! Great job! As for the iron, I found on the last quilt I made that the steam was stretching my kona white fabric -- to the point that after my seams were sewn, I had to rip out the seams and re-cut the fabric, keeping an eye on how much it had stretched and cutting it down to the right size before attaching my next piece. I'm using the same kona white on the quilt I'm piecing now, and I've decided not to put any water into the iron. Huge Difference! The white is not stretching nearly as much. I haven't scorched yet, but that's probably coming soon! Good luck with the rest of your blocks, it looks great!

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    1. Wow -- I never would have guessed that steam would cause problems like that. Thanks for the heads-up!

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