A Simple Solution to Your Panel Problem
On the Way to Cape May is a beautiful patten that uses a never-ending panel…so what happens when your quilt shop gets excited and chops up that never-ending panel for precuts?!
It’s time for your friendly neighborhood designer to step in and lend a hand!
First: Don’t Panic
First off, take a deep breath. We’re going to fix this problem with a few extra panels and a few extra seams! When it’s finished, no one will ever know!
Second: Get More Panels
The first thing to do when you’ve realized this error is to grab extra panels while they are available!
Assuming that your shop cut 24″ wide panels, you’ll need to get the total number of panels listed below:
- Wall/Baby Quilt: 2 Total Panels
- Twin Quilt: 6 Total Panels
- Queen Quilt: 7 Total Panels
- King Quilt: 8 Total Panels
Third: Piece and Proceed!
After you piece these panels together, you’ll basically be re-creating the running yardage that the pattern calls for in the first place, so let’s get them pieced and get back to the pattern!
Find the page number for your specific size:
- Wall/Baby: Page 5
- Twin: Page 6
- Queen: Page 7
- King: Page 8
Now that you’re on this page, read through and make sure you understand what the plan is. Essentially, we are going to make a huge rectangle with these panels, cut out our borders, and then cut out our feature blocks.
Referring to your size, create two rectangles (just 1 for wall/baby sizes) according to the dimensions listed in your pattern in the first paragraph.
Cut your borders in the order shown on the pattern. The top and bottom borders will be the only place you’ll find extra seams. Lucky for us, the fabric is so busy in that area that no one will ever notice!
Next, you’ll cut the strips for your feature blocks. You should be able to get what you need on either side of the vertical seams, so there won’t be any extra seams in your blocks (yippee!)
A Special Note for Wall/Baby Sizes
I have a little trick for you if you’re working on a Wall/Baby size or if for some reason you can’t get a full feature block without seams in a different size…
Please note that this will ONLY work if you are using the Bee Haven Meadow Panel, I can’t speak to how this will work with other panels. My design happens to be random enough that we can get away with it though! 😉
Cutting Blocks
If you’re working on the smaller sizes, following the pattern, and planning ahead you’ll notice that this seam is fixin’ to land RIGHT in your feature block…we can’t have that! So, I have a little trick for you…BUT FIRST make sure to cut your borders!
Did you cut your borders yet!? If not, head back to Page 5 of your instructions and CUT THEM FIRST!
(pretty please)
Refer to the images below: Cut TWO feature block strips rather than 3, skipping over the seam in the center of your panels. Subcut these strips for a total of 6 squares.
Lay out all 6 squares in front of you, recreating how the panel looked before it was cut (top left image, below). THEN simply slide the middle square on the right side one row to the right (top right image, below). Remove the corner squares. This will be the layout for your Feature Blocks (bottom left image, below).
Stitch On, My Friend!
Quilt projects always seem to bring along one or two surprises throughout the process. Lucky for us, we got our surprise out of the way right at the beginning AND I was here to grab your hand and lead you on! I hope that stitching the rest of this quilt is a delight!
If this conundrum happened to you, be sure to kindly share this post with your local quilt shop or friends who may have run into a similar problem!
If you’re a quilt shop owner, you’re welcome to print this out and include it with your panels or patterns!
Be the woman who fixes another woman’s crown without telling the world it was crooked
Author Unknown