Soft & Spooky Quilt-Along: Week 7

The next few weeks, we're assembling the quilt top. We're so close to being finished! Here are some tips to help you conquer common stumbling blocks when sewing quilt tops together.

1. This is the perfect time to use a design wall if you have one. Or lay things out on the ground or a spare bed, so you can plan your block placement. Here are a few things to check for. If you were using directional prints or fussy-cutting your block centers, make sure everything is facing the way you intended. This is also a great way to plan your color placement.
2. Before you start sewing your blocks and sashing together, you want to take a quick measure of your blocks. Sometimes with blocks like this (especially with these small pieces) blocks can come out larger than they're supposed to or smaller than they're supposed to. There are a few ways to fix this problem while sewing things together. If your blocks are all the same size (but all smaller or all larger) than the finished block size is supposed to be, adjust the size of your cream sashing squares to be the same size as your blocks to everything fits together. If your blocks are all different sizes – some larger, some smaller, some the right size, you might be able to make up some of the difference in your sewing. This tip only works if your blocks are off about 1/4" from the right size. When you're sewing the blocks together, place the larger piece on the bottom. The feed dogs will pull the bottom piece of fabric through the machine at a slightly faster rate and make up some of the difference in size. If your blocks are more than 1/4" off from each other, you'll have to plan a date with your seam ripper and re-sew the blocks.
3. When sewing blocks together, put the piece with the seams facing up so you can see how the seams of the block are feeding through the machine and avoid any twisted seams. Keeping seams flat and pressed the right way will help the quilt top come together easily and make machine quilting this quilt easier!
4. Pin, pin, pin! If you're not usually a pinner, now is the time! Pin rows of the quilt together at every seam intersection to make sure my blocks are lining up and staying in place.