Blog Post 8 – Dutchman’s Puzzle
Afternoon, everyone! That Craft Dafty here (@thatcraftydafty) with my monthly update on the Patchwork and Quilting variant of the My Guilty Pleasure Subscription Service.
The Patchwork and Quilting option for the My Guilty Pleasure Subscription Service is designed to have you make a block each month, and by the end of the twelfth month you will have enough blocks to make a sampler quilt.
The seventh Block of the Month is the Dutchman’s Puzzle.
As always, inside this month’s box I received the following:
x 4 Fat Eighths of a new Lewis & Irene collection
x 1 Fat Quarter of a background
Fully printed instructions for the Block of the Month, complete with helpful illustrations
x 1 spool of thread, in a coordinating colour
x 1 surprise!
Now, I was a little nervous for this block as it features my arch nemesis: the Stitch & Flip method. However, I’m forever determined to get better at them. So I dove in head-first.
First, a little tip when it comes to sewing on your corner squares. I always like to use a fabric leader of some kind because if you try and immediately sew from the corner, sometimes the fabric can be pulled in by the feed dogs and can cause you a lot of problems. However, with the fabric leader this means that your thread won’t tangle and crinkle up, and it means your stitching starts right in the corner.
I believe I’ve mentioned this tip before, but it bears repeating: if you sew just to the right of your drawn / marked line, when you press open your corner triangles, they will line up almost perfectly with the outer raw edges of your starting rectangle. This is because the fold of the fabric will take up a little space, so it’s worth accounting for it when sewing.
It’s worth clarifying that you should always move your stitching towards the corner you’re pressing to. I mentioned above that I stitch “just to the right” of my marked line, and most of the time that is the case. However, it’s worth jut paying attention to the direction you’ll be pressing to, and stitching slightly towards that direction.
As you can see, using this tip makes my raw edges all line up pretty closely when I’ve pressed it open. You can always flip it over and trim any overhang by using the starting rectangle as a guide, however most of the time I don’t need to when using this method.
From there, I simply repeat this step with the second corner triangle and I end up with a Flying Geese Unit that is exactly the size I need, or as close to it as possible. It also means that the quarter inch overlap is accurate and consistent across any and all units made the same way.
One last little tip, when sewing your flying geese units to each other be sure to sew with the point on top. This helps makes sure you don’t cut it off, and keeps your points crispy and sharp.
As always, I hope you’ve found this helpful. I’ll be providing updates every month via the Little Miss Sew ‘n’ Sew blogs on their website, but you can check out any little sewing updates via my Instagram account: @thatcraftydafty. Hope to see you there.
Happy sewing!
H.