Machine Piecing

I have a very nice Bernina sewing machine :) but we are not best friends :( this is something I want to rectify this year. I normally prefer to hand piece small intricate blocks and save machine work for long easy straight piecing, but as I am meant to be challenging myself this year! I decided to machine piece the first two blocks of Green Tea & Sweet Beans.
I started by making a template from the pattern in the book, using clear plastic so I could fussy cut if possible...

I then rotary cut the pieces using my small cutter and adding the 1/4" seam allowance as I cut...

I trimmed the dog ears from the triangles - this helps every thing line up nicely...

Laid out the pieces on my board...

And machine pieced them together  - one 6" Wedding Chain Block no problems :)

Flushed with success I decided to tackle the 3 1/4" Propeller Blocks next, Hmm not so good! I measured the finished units and they were 1/16" too big, so I had to trim them all, not a problem but I am glad I took the trouble to check, 1/16" seems trivial but if I had sewn all 16 together and then measured I would have been a whole 1" out - major headache when it comes to putting the quilt top together!

Once they were all trimmed, I had no problem piecing the block. I need to take extra care when making and cutting out templates, it is really easy to cut just outside your pen line resulting a piece that is only a hairs width too big, but that error gets compounded very quickly in these small blocks with lots of pieces.

I am still happily hand piecing the hexagon panel in the evenings, I am making 1" hexagons, but the pattern in the book calls for 1 1/4" - no real problem, I just need to make a few extra, the block has to be trimmed to size at the end, so fingers crossed all will be well!