Fair Isle Sew Along, Part 5: Zig zag rows
Welcome to Week 5 of the Fair Isle Sew-Along!
So how did everybody do with last week's reindeer blocks? I saw some really cute reindeer out there on the Interwebs! But I know some people also had some frustration with getting seams aligned. If your seams look puckery or wobbly, or your reindeer generally look like they had too much eggnog at the Christmas party, I'll return to what I said in last week's post, which is that your 1/4" seam is probably not as consistent as it could be. You get that seam consistent, and I promise your reindeer will be perfect and completely sober. 😂
It's not easy though, so above all, please don't get discouraged. A few suggestions that might help are putting masking tape down on your machine bed to help with alignment, or you could do what I saw from sew-along participants a few times this week and eliminate some seams entirely, and just make your reindeer out of unpieced horizontal strips. That will require a little math, but if you're proficient in such things, go for it! I went back and forth about whether to actually write the pattern that way, but in the end I decided it would make the pattern-writing too complicated and the pattern would have to be even longer than it already is. It also would have made the cutting a lot more complex, and I'm sure you all agree that cutting this bad boy was plenty complex enough as it was. LOL. But for those of you who are able to do the calculations, it's a great time saver.
And the bottom line is, the real key to happy reindeer probably just comes down to practice—practice, practice, and more practice. I'd bet good money that your seams were better on the last reindeer than they were on the first, right? So just keep at it, and don't worry if your deer are a little wonky—quilting covers many evils!
Okay, so on to this week's task: The Zig Zag rows. Honestly, I don't have much to say about these, other than that they're really easy and fun, especially right after the reindeer! LOL. It's just strip-piecing, cross-cutting, and piecing again.
And when you're done, you end up with this (these are from my first Fair Isle quilt):
So have fun with the Zig Zags, and I'll see you back here for the next installment!
Want to play along with us? You can buy the Fair Isle pattern right here.
I'm going to publish the next installment on Friday, Nov. 28, since the 27th is Thanksgiving. Until then, can't wait to see how you're doing—don't forget to either link up below, or use the hashtag #fairislequilt. And have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with joy, love, and pie!
Fair Isle Quilt Sew-Along
Make the Pink Checkerboard Row