Sewing on the last round, getting cocky...
Last month was my month as a quilter in the do. Good Stitches Bee and I asked the group to make Stash Buster Blocks from Little Miss Shabby's awesome tutorial found here. I waited until all the blocks from the other members in the group came in before making my own blocks so I could see if we needed to balance anything out in the quilt.
Murel made a beautiful block using the Stash Buster #2 tutorial for one of her blocks and I decided that I wanted to showcase it on the back of the quilt so I needed to make three blocks to round out the quilt top. I cut my strips and squares based on the measurements in the tutorial and started putting the blocks together. I considered cutting the strips on the outside layer a little fat, just in case my seams were slightly off, that way I could cut it down to size. But when it came time to sew the outer strips on the block, I measured and got cocky. Okay math is not my strong suit, but I swear that according to my math I should have been okay with the correct sized strips.
I was very wrong. My block turned out to measure 10.75" instead of the desired 12.5". That's 1.75" difference! Arugh! I shouldn't have gotten cocky. So it's back to ripping stitches. The most frustrating part is when I measured my seams they were all measuring out at 1/4". And I used my trusty 1/4" foot on all the seams so I don't know where I went wrong and SOOOO grossly wrong.
This time I added 3" boarders and cut them down to size.
So here is my Tip of the Day: When in doubt, always make your last row thicker than you think. It's so much easier to trim a block down to size than it is to try and bulk it up to size.
UGH, this is what I dread about designing my own blocks. My mistake is usually in the cutting. If I don't pay close attention sometimes I'll cut a 2" instead of a 3". :( Good luck getting it fixed.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I feel your pain!!! >:(
ReplyDeleteWhat a pain!! I wonder what went wrong?
ReplyDeleteHow frustrating!
ReplyDeleteGreat that you're putting my 'other' block on the back! I can't wait to see the whole quilt done (take your time though!)
Hang in there Hollie!
ReplyDeleteawe don't worry Hollie! I am sure you can find a use for the strips your ripping off!
ReplyDeleteI totally get screwing up a block. But the block looks great!
ReplyDelete