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Unseamly

No, I didn’t spell that incorrectly.

This photo shows a section of TheGypsy Wife Quilt at a partial seam intersection.
Why So Unseamly?

There are several places in this quilt that call for partial seams. I’ve never before sewn a partial seam. I didn’t find the idea hard to grasp, but the execution was a little trickier. Do you see all the seam intersections there where the partial seam is? That’s what added the “un” to the “seamly.”

All those little pieces, all those seams going every which way, and then a partial seam to boot, made pressing this section a blast. (Not.) Early on, someone in the GWQ sewing group suggested we tack all of our sewn seams down with dots of Elmer’s washable glue. Now I know why. I didn’t use glue, but it might have made attaching the red quatrefoil strip easier.

In case you don’t understand what I’m babbling about, the small green polka dot square and the orange-yellow square are the same size, and are sewn together completely. The red quatrefoil strip has to be sewn to the green polka dot strip in order to attach it to the square in a square block on the far left, however, if I sew the quatrefoil strip the full length of the green polka dot strip, I won’t be able to correctly attach the red and blue pinwheel at their right. That’s why a partial seam was required.

I’m sure I didn’t explain that well. How could I when it is still a jumble in my mind? However, I successfully completed my first partial seam and am hoping that the insight I gained while doing so will make the dozen or so partial seams still to come easier to complete.

This photo shows the furthest right segment of Section One in the Gypsy Wife Quilt.
Section One, underway.

So far, so good. Section One, 1/3rd done.

Quilly is the pseudonym of Charlene L. Amsden, who lives on The Big Island in Hawaii. When she is not hanging out with Amoeba, she is likely teaching or sewing. Or she could be cooking, taking photographs, or even writing. But if she's not doing any of that, she's probably on Facebook or tinkering with her blog.

2 Comments

    1. It actually went together much more easily than I expected. The hardest part was keeping all the little pieces in order. I had to use the seam ripper a couple of times because I got things out of order. More on that later.

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