I am so excited that I have this border finished! It was certainly a challenge for me to get it to fit and I am still puzzled as to what went wrong.
Since I know there are others out there working on the Di Ford Mystery in Quiltmania magazine, I am going to explain my issue in the hopes of figuring it out. First, the pattern for the templates was not included in the magazine but quickly Quiltmania realized their mistake and made the pattern available for download on their website. I printed a copy and double checked to make sure they were accurate.
Using the magazine measurements I cut all the triangles with no problem. The problem for me seemed to come from the measurement of the squares. The pattern suggested drawing a grid of 2" squares and then appliquéing the circles before cutting the individual squares. After reading that there were a few people having size issues on the FB group I decided to piece the border before doing the appliqué. In the template diagram the square measurement is 1 3/8 meaning a cut size of 1 7/8, not the 2 " mentioned for drawing the grid. I was confused but Di Ford herself clarified on the FB group that the cut size was to be 1 7/8 so that is what I cut.
But I sewed my border and ended up almost 1" short of the 24 1/2 measurement that is should have been. I was frustrated but decided to spray it with Best Press and stretch it slightly while ironing to see if I could fix it some. While that is not a great fix it did work and I decided to sew the next border. This time I moved the needle over one position and change to Aurifil thread to see if things would improve. They did not so I finished my borders using my "fix" with Best Press to make them fit. But I was so frustrated as I was sewing so carefully and had double and triple checked my cutting and seam allowance measurements.
I then decided to measure the square template realizing that the diagonal need to be 2". Yes, that was perfect.
So finally I measured the square and what did I find but that it was just over 1 3/8" by almost 1/16". Unfortunately due to the angle of the photo this is not quite clear.
Ok that does not seem like much but for me it did seem to make a difference or probably it really is fine and it is just my stitching or perhaps my pressing. Those piecing by hand using the templates seem to have no fit issues and Di and others seem to have no issues piecing by machine with the 1 7/8 measurement, so I am stumped as to why it would not work for me. I would love to hear from anyone else who can explain it or to hear how it worked for you if you are making this quilt. This has been a year that I am trying to improve my piecing so any suggestions would be appreciated!
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