Columns or rows?

[Kathy Morris]

When y'all put your quilt blocks together, do you put the blocks together in
rows first, and then sew the rows together, or put the blocks into columns, and
then sew the columns together? Does it make a difference? Would one work better
for some quilts then for others? Just curious!

Happy quilting!

+Kathy Morris
Canton, Georgia
kmo...@mindspring.com
http://www.mindspring.com/~kmorris

[lindroos]

Kathy, just taking a break from my "Stripples". The directions are for rows,
but I don't think it really matters just that you watch the directions that
you are pressing your seams. When putting the seams together I have the
seams going in opposite directions so that you (in theory) get a nice close
seam. This isn't happening so well this time around but usually it works
pretty well.
Deni from burnaby bc canada
Kathy Morris wrote in message <378f86c5...@news.prestige.net>...

[Pam]

It should be just exactly the same thing, only 90 degrees rotated.

I tend to use the method that is in the Quilt in a Day books, where the
blocks are sewn into rows a column at a time, so at the end of the first set
of sewing, all the blocks are sewn into their rows, with thread tacks
holding them to the rows above and below -- making it easier to sew the
vertical seams. The method is a little hard to describe or picture in your
mind, but if you read her description carefully and stack the blocks as she
tells you to, it is very easy to do.

Pam
(mahubbard)

Kathy Morris <kmo...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:378f86c5...@news.prestige.net...

[Imapearl]

I don't think it really matters on most quilts. I tend to do rows. Rows
are easier for me to keep track of and I think the reason is because my
brain is trained to think horizontally. All that reading, don't you know.
:-)
Pearl

Kathy Morris wrote in message <378f86c5...@news.prestige.net>...

[nbennett]

From my vast experience (3 quilts), without thinking out
why, I sewed the blocks in rows then the rows together
for the length.

I wonder if it makes a difference.

Nancy

Kathy Morris <kmo...@mindspring.com> wrote in article

[Tesca Olver-Osman]

Either is an option, but you didn't mention a third possibility. For
something like Double Irish Chain, I usually sew the blocks into pairs, then
the pairs into big four-patches, then these into pairs, and those into
bigger four-(sixteen)-patches.

The advantage of this is that you then have big blocks of the components of
the design, and it doesn't matter if you have to put them away incomplete
because it's easy to lay them out again.

PLUS you have the opportunity to "split the difference" top and bottom of
any slightly mis-sized blocks as you sew, and you don't end up with a one
inch difference at the end of a long row or column.

Works for me!

Tesca (still in Germany, but on my way)
New e-mail address: rob...@IT.COM.PL

[Rita Denenberg]

It does make a difference. Blocks should preferably be set in columns if they
don't have sashing. Visualize this..... You're in bed with a warm cozy quilt
and you want to bring it up to your neck. The strain goes vertically as you
pull so the columns work with it. Makes little or no difference with sashing as
everything is distributed evenly.
--
Rita
http://myquilts.hypermart.net
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/4240/
nbennett wrote:

--
Rita
http://myquilts.hypermart.net
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/4240/

[Cyndi]

This is usually what I do, also. It helps that you dont have to sew all of the
long rows or columns together, too. You end up with manageable pieces right
down to the last couple of seams.
Cyndi in LA

[margaret mills]

This is the way I've seen Mary Ellen Hopkins put hers together, too. She
sews two blocks together then four, and keeps going until half the quilt
is done, then does the same for the other half. And as she puts it, "You
only have one long seam to sew." when you sew the halves together.

Cheers,
Margaret in cool, damp Edmonton

Tesca Olver-Osman wrote:
>
> Either is an option, but you didn't mention a third possibility. For
> something like Double Irish Chain, I usually sew the blocks into pairs, then
> the pairs into big four-patches, then these into pairs, and those into
> bigger four-(sixteen)-patches.
>
> The advantage of this is that you then have big blocks of the components of
> the design, and it doesn't matter if you have to put them away incomplete
> because it's easy to lay them out again.
>
> PLUS you have the opportunity to "split the difference" top and bottom of
> any slightly mis-sized blocks as you sew, and you don't end up with a one
> inch difference at the end of a long row or column.
>
> Works for me!
>
> Tesca (still in Germany, but on my way)
> New e-mail address: rob...@IT.COM.PL

--
MagsRags - Edmonton, AB.

Blessed Are The Flexible
For They shall Not Be
Bent Out Of Shape

htttp://www.freenet.edmonton.ab.ca/~mgmills/

[Marissa]

I always do this. I never do rows or columns, I try to make
the smallest number of long semas possible, because those
are the ones in which I am more likely to have unmatching
seams!

Tesca Olver-Osman wrote:
>
> Either is an option, but you didn't mention a third possibility. For
> something like Double Irish Chain, I usually sew the blocks into pairs, then
> the pairs into big four-patches, then these into pairs, and those into
> bigger four-(sixteen)-patches.
>

--
****************************************************
Marissa Vignali email: mg...@psu.edu
URL: http://www.bmb.psu.edu/597a/stdnts96/Vignali

FEMINISM IS THE RADICAL NOTION THAT WOMEN ARE PEOPLE
****************************************************

[Judith Puddy]

This is what Mary Ellen Hopkins calls making 'neighbourhoods, then cities,
then states, then countries...'
So far I've only done horizontal rows.

Judy

Marissa <mg...@psu.edu> wrote in message news:3790D629...@psu.edu...

[Raymond A. or Margaret B. Donelick]

I do it so that end up with making more short seams, and trying to avoid
really long ones. Sometimes I do two by two squares instead of making a
long row 4 squares long sewed to another long 4 quare row. Does that
make sense? I hate to sew long seams.

Margaret

> Kathy Morris wrote in message <378f86c5...@news.prestige.net>...

[Niasha]

I generally sew in columns. I found that when I have to unsew it seems to
put less strain on the blocks. Niasha

Kathy Morris wrote

[SbTorrens]

In article <OaBWhd$z#GA.320@cpmsnbbsa03>, "Pam" <mahu...@email.msn.com>
writes:

>I tend to use the method that is in the Quilt in a Day books, where the
>blocks are sewn into rows a column at a time, so at the end of the first set
>of sewing, all the blocks are sewn into their rows, with thread tacks
>holding them to the rows above and below -- making it easier to sew the
>vertical seams. The method is a little hard to describe or picture in your
>mind, but if you read her description carefully and stack the blocks as she
>tells you to, it is very easy to do.

This is the way I taught my quilting group, and only one person messed up! She
had a habit of picking up the next block, and then rotating it to check for
placement, and put it back incorrectly every time! Everyone in the group
helped her to "frog-stitch", and then we took turns watching her, until she got
it right!
---ttfn--- Susan
a Canadian soon to be leaving Panama City FL

[Kathy Applebaum]

In article <378f86c5...@news.prestige.net>, kmo...@mindspring.com wrote:

>When y'all put your quilt blocks together, do you put the blocks together in
>rows first, and then sew the rows together, or put the blocks into columns, and
>then sew the columns together? Does it make a difference? Would one work better

>for some quilts then for others? Just curious!
>

Hi, fellow Kathy!

I just make bigger and bigger blocks. If you connect 10 blocks in a row,
and sew another 10 block row to it, you have 9 seams which need to match
exactly, no fudging allowed. But if you connect a 2 block row to a 2 block
row, there's only 1 seam to match. Any fudging can be done in the seam
allowance. When you connect this 4-block "block" to another 4-block
"block", there's still only 1 seam to match.

I've pieced three bed-sized quilts with this method now, and it really
hides a *multitude* of sewing sins!

Kathy A.
Kayney...@compuserve.com

[Butterfly]

When I was 'learning how' to row stitch, I would put a safety pin on the side that
needed to be stitiched next. Sure it took a bit longer to pin/unpin but it cut down
on the frog-stitch. Also, if you are interrupted and have to leave/come back
later--you 'know' where you left off.
Butterfly

[roberta]

But if you do a Full Harriet quilting job on it, there should be so much
stitching it wouldn't matter which way you pulled it.
Roberta in DK

Rita Denenberg <ri...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:37907C8E...@bellsouth.net...

> It does make a difference. Blocks should preferably be set in columns if
they
> don't have sashing. Visualize this..... You're in bed with a warm cozy
quilt
> and you want to bring it up to your neck. The strain goes vertically as
you
> pull so the columns work with it. Makes little or no difference with
sashing as
> everything is distributed evenly.
> --
> Rita
> http://myquilts.hypermart.net
> http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/4240/
> nbennett wrote:
>
> > From my vast experience (3 quilts), without thinking out
> > why, I sewed the blocks in rows then the rows together
> > for the length.
> >
> > I wonder if it makes a difference.
> >
> > Nancy
> >
> > Kathy Morris <kmo...@mindspring.com> wrote in article
> > <378f86c5...@news.prestige.net>...

> > > When y'all put your quilt blocks together, do you put the blocks
together
> > in
> > > rows first, and then sew the rows together, or put the blocks into
> > columns, and
> > > then sew the columns together? Does it make a difference? Would one
work
> > better
> > > for some quilts then for others? Just curious!
> > >

> > > Happy quilting!
> > >
> > >
> > > +Kathy Morris
> > > Canton, Georgia
> > > kmo...@mindspring.com
> > > http://www.mindspring.com/~kmorris
> > >
>
>
>

[Kayte Serumgar]

What's a frog-stitch?

Kayte in Michigan

SbTorrens <sbto...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:19990718120254...@ngol01.aol.com...

[Deb]

*Rip-it, rip-it*---you know....un-sewing. ;-)
--
Deb
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Flats/4237/ (my quilts)
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Flats/4237/ffthome.html
Food For Thought Challenge Pix

Kayte Serumgar wrote ...

[sarah curry]

roberta wrote:
>
> But if you do a Full Harriet quilting job on it, there should be so much
> stitching it wouldn't matter which way you pulled it.
> Roberta in DK
>

And the "Full Harriet" is something like the "Full Monty", right,
Roberta?
Howling,
Sairey (who's always just done hers by "twosies" and "foursies", with
just one "long" seam, and never once thought to think about it ...)

[Virginia Hughes]

Roberta wrote that a "Full Harriet' quilting job would make it
irrelevant which way one pulled a quilt up to one's neck, because of all
the stitching involved. Another factor would be if the quilt has no
directional element in the blocks and if the quilt is square. I have a
Rose of Sharon on our bed, five blocks by five blocks with borders, and
it is never on the bed the same direction two days in a row. I don't
recall after so long (finished it in 1980), whether I did it in columns
or rows, but it wouldn't make any stress difference either way.
Virginia in Paradise, CA

[John McKinnon]

sarah curry wrote:

Well I thought it was funny too!
--
John
Armidale NSW Australia

[Sandy Marsh]

Well, just working on instinct, I seem to have done it your way, Rita!
I made a few sunshine and shade lap-size quilts for the "kids in
distress", and did them in columns because that just felt like the right
way to do them. Never even considered doing rows first!

Sandy

[roberta]

Well, yes, but sort of in reverse, wouldn't you say?
Roberta in DK, (Harriet changed my lifestyle -now I finish them)

sarah curry <scu...@zianet.com> wrote in message
news:379257...@zianet.com...

[roberta]

My method for keeping blocks in the right order for stitching (invented by
some genius whose name I can't recall) is to put them all up on the design
wall and do all the necessary rearranging. Then slip a safety pin through
all adjoining edges, don't worry about matching precisely, just connect the
edges that will be sewn together. Then take the whole mess over to the SM,
find a corner piece somewhere, and sew an adjoining seam. Keep going down
that row (or column) and do all the rows parallel. No need to cut apart your
chains. Then turn it and do all the column (or row) seams in the other
direction, folding the intersecting seams in opposite directions as you
cross them. Works great if you can ignore that it looks like a pile of
confetti when you start. Then press everything. you can break it into
manageable sections if your quilt is huge.
Roberta in DK

Butterfly <surfe...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:379216B4...@worldnet.att.net...

> When I was 'learning how' to row stitch, I would put a safety pin on the
side that
> needed to be stitiched next. Sure it took a bit longer to pin/unpin but it
cut down
> on the frog-stitch. Also, if you are interrupted and have to leave/come
back
> later--you 'know' where you left off.
> Butterfly
>
> SbTorrens wrote:
>

[LuEllen]

Great Idea, Roberta. Here I have been "labeling" each block by rows,
example A-1, A-2.etc. then B's, and C's...then stacking, then sewing and
pressing.....then trying to get them altogether with the seams matching. I
like the idea of "twosies" and "foursies" and just making "pals" of them
before they become "mates"
My late Aunt Rachel (a wonderful seamstress, but not a quilter) once said
that her pieces were "pals", not "mates" because they didn't match up
exactly.....
--
LuEllen in coastal NC

roberta <rob...@private.dk> wrote in article
<7mvh32$akc$6...@news101.telia.com>...

[shhdesigns]

Once I saw Mary Ellen Hopkins on Simply quilts describe the 2 by 2 method
that Margaret described. It sounds like a neat idea, like sewing big 4
patches together. I still tend to do it in vertical column chain stitching
the columns together to make rows and then cut them apart to sew the rows
together, find I have less errors that way. Hard to describe and can be
awkward at times but works for me.
Sandi in New West. B.C.
Raymond A. or Margaret B. Donelick wrote in message
<37908CC6...@apatite.com>...

>I do it so that end up with making more short seams, and trying to avoid
>really long ones. Sometimes I do two by two squares instead of making a
>long row 4 squares long sewed to another long 4 quare row. Does that
>make sense? I hate to sew long seams.
>
>Margaret
>

>> Kathy Morris wrote in message <378f86c5...@news.prestige.net>...

[Karen McLaughlin]

the only reason i have done mine by rows is i fear that the twosies
method would screw me up .... that i would end up putting them together
wrong and end up doing more frog sewing than real sewing

Karen