The Big Oops!

So this past weekend was full of ups and downs both in daily life and quilting life, which brings me to Mistake #2, or "The Big Oops!" Sometimes I forget that just how inexperienced I am as a quilter and I get a little too overzealous. I forget that I still have a lot to learn - or remember rather! I finished piecing Ruthie's quilt top with ease. Piecing is, after all, the easy part for me since that's just basic sewing. And it's the fun part too, in my opinion. So, I finished the quilt top, took some pictures, made my quilt sandwich (which I have to admit is probably my least favorite part of the process) and was ready to quilt. Dum... dum... dum... Mistake #2 reared it's ugly head.

I left the backing fabric in tact while I was making my quilt sandwich. I figured this way I could simply trim the backing fabric down right before I started quilting and conserve as much of the extra fabric as possible. Here is where my overzealousness led me to Mistake #2 (which funny enough I didn't realize I had made until AFTER I made Mistake #3!) Instead of trimming just the backing fabric I, stupidly, trimmed down the entire quilt sandwich (as if I had already quilted the entire quilt)! And to make matters WORSE as I was trimming down one side I trimmed it down to 1" instead of 2"!!! Seriously, I am an experienced sewer. I know as well of anyone else to MEASURE TWICE AND CUT ONCE! Sigh! I almost died when I realized what I had done. And then I realized that I wasn't supposed to trim down the quilt now. I was a step ahead of myself!

Thankfully, the quilting gods were shining down on me that night and when I quilted it all together. The quilt didn't really shift and all the layers stayed perfectly in tact. I don't know who was looking out for me but all I can say is, "THANK YOU"!

Chalk it up to a learning experience. That's all I can do. I can tell you I will never make the same mistake again. I mean I know I'll make many, many more mistakes in the years of quilting ahead of me, just hopefully not the same ones! Now that the premature heart attack has abated and the quilt has been saved, I can get re-centered while I move onto binding.