Here's a picture of what caused my problems and hence ballooning center of the block. Note that upon sewing, the bottom (center bottom) triangle ends up wider than the three top sewn triangles. This happened because I matched the points of the three top triangles and sewed the seam. With that seam, there goes 1/4 inch on each side as far as the overall width is concerned.
To fix this, I decided I needed to know where all the seams intersect. I measured 1/4 inch on all sides and put little hatch marks at the intersect points.
Then I pinned the pieces AT THESE POINTS before sewing the seams.
This little step made all the difference. The triangle pieces were off set just enough that they lined up perfectly with the bottom triangle when it was sewn on.
The finished block. No trimming down of the block required! Whew!
If you should want to do the traditional piecing method, instead of paper piecing, it is very much worth your time to do the above step.
Bias edges will stretch easily, so pinning carefully and careful sewing will help keep those problems at bay. Try not to make mistakes and rip out the threads. Repeated unsewing will stretch the edges. That is how I got the "wee bit of ballooning" when I finished my first block for the last time.
Hope this helps!paper piecing pattern for the Triangles Galore Block
CLICK FOR Victoria's FREE paper piecing PDF HERE
