Thursday, July 28, 2011

~Evolving~

While finishing my granddaughter’s birthday quilt, I began a birthday quilt for my husband. With my Christmas gift certificate from the Fat Quarter Shop, I purchased three charm packs of Arnold’s Attic by Barbara Brackman for Moda.


I had a specific quilt in mind, but at the time, did not know who would be the recipient. As my husband has been dropping some not so subtle hints that he would like a quilt, I figured I'd better whip one out for him. I knew the colors and prints would be perfect for him.
So, I got busy Tuesday sewing my 2 ½ inch squares to the charms. I was so proud of how quickly I pinned and pieced!! That evening as I was looking at the pattern, I realized that (once again) I failed to follow the instructions correctly. UGH!!! I spent the rest of the evening stewing over what to do. I was not about to rip the seams out of about 70 charms!!! As I whined said to my sister, a quarter of an inch shouldn’t matter that much, right?
I stewed about this most of Wednesday, and then realized that I would never evolve as a quilter until I quit taking the easy way out, accepting my errors without correcting them. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to rip out the stitches, re-pin, etc. Well, I stewed about this for several hours. I would do it, but I did not have to be happy about it! Fortunately, during all of this "stewing," I realized that even though I had messed up, it really wasn't that bad after all. I used the incorrect seam lines as my 1/4 inch "guide"and then  sewed another seam on each block. Easy, peasy :) Then, I took my rotary cutter and cut along the first seam. All is as it should be!! 



 
My Devlin, helpful as always

Perhaps, I am evolving as a quilter. I did not take the easy way out, although correcting my error ended up being quite easy.

 Have a happy day!
Michelle







4 comments:

  1. As usual I admire your persistence! So glad the correcting didn't take as long as you thought. I'm sure it will be awesome like all your other quilts. Since you have started quilting, I've noticed I'm a little more careful in my stitching, etc. You are such a good role model ;-) Thanks for being such a good influence and inspiration!

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  2. Wow! You've really been going to town on the quilts. Mistakes or not, you're doing great. And you did better than my sister would have. She'da marched the whole mess out to her burn barrel and set it on fire! I'm so proud of you!

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  3. That's not a bad mistake. Good job on figuring it all out! Keep up the good work. I think quilting's a journey. I'm continually evolving, learning new tricks and becoming a better sewer throughout the journey. It's fun to keep discovering new things about yourself. :-)

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  4. I agree it looks like your doing great, we learn from our mistakes (believe me I make alot of them) I will first try to figure out if I can find a way to make it work before ripping out..I hate the seam ripper! Anyways good luck with the quilting :) Ps. Love the kittie playing with your pieces!

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