Quilting Disaster

Let's be honest.  We all have at least one quilting project that got abandoned because of a problem.  Sometimes it is a result of a choice that we made; or maybe instructions we didn't interpret correctly; or just a mistake.

I had one of those situations this week.  I had decided to make another mini-lonestar quilt to have a demo project for my current lonestar class.  Each of the sections of the lonestar have 25 pieces with the entire block ending up 8" x 8".  The sections are about 2" x 4"

I had finished piecing one of those sections and went to cut off the excess fabric around the unit.  I forgot the advice "measure twice and cut once" and mistakenly cut the sewing line rather than the cutting line -- basically eliminating my seam allowance.  Disaster!!!!

Mistake from Back -- see the bad cut!!

Mistake from Front

Day 1 - So the first thing I did was find something else to do while I pondered the problem.  The refrigerator or something sweet in the kitchen is my first "go to" resource.  This took 10 minutes and added an extra 300 calories to my daily calorie intake.

Then I decided I needed to sleep on the issue.

Day 2 -- I decide that I can fix the issue.  Just open up the seam allowances between each row.  It's only the first patch of three rows that have the problem.  Spent 15 minutes ripping out the seams.  Yes this final piece is less than 3" on each side -- but I recommend using a stitch length setting of 1 for paper piecing -- which means I have really tiny stitches.  I also proceeded to tear some of the paper.  After everything was opened up, I'm less convinced that I can get those patches put in correctly so all the points continue to match us.  I even consider "hand applique"  -- but that seems like too much work.

Another trip to the refrigerator was in order and another night to sleep on the issue.

Day 3 -- I decide to redo the entire section.  This took about a hour to execute and produced an end product that I will be able to use. 

Redone Section -- Points Should Match Better Once Once Paper is Removed.

What I concluded:

• Looking for the short-cut cost me 2 extra days and 600
  calories
• Redoing the block from scratch -- while it took time it
  only took 60 minutes.
• The technique for the project was "fast" and "precise" -- so the mistake only cost me an hour of time.
• Sometimes it is faster to "redo" versus fix.

I then thought about a number of other items in my "inventory".  (This is where a put quilts I've decided to stop working on for some reason.)

I'm thinking a number of them could probably be salvaged with an investment of an hour or two.  Maybe I should plan to take an hour a week to work on a "quilt problem".  It's a pretty small investment and could yield great results.

Quilting Videos

On a more positive note, I received a lot of positive feedback on my first You Tube video.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! 

I'm already starting work on my next one.

I even was able to obtain an introductory clip to use at the front of future videos.  This one will only take 10 seconds to watch.

Happy quilting.

Kari