Monday, June 02, 2008

Back to the Drawing Board

This looks like an innocent little alternate block, it's part of the Ocean Wave I'm currently waste deep in.

I've made this block four times. FOUR TIMES! I don't mean I've sewn four blocks. I mean I've sewn, ripped, picked, pressed and resewn the same block over and over. It's mostly because I'm such a trusting soul. The pattern said to cut the center square 4-3/4" and so I did. But the block came out 6-1/2" unfinished instead of 5-1/2". What did I do wrong?
After more efforts to solve the mystery than I will bore you with here, I threw it down in disgust late last night. I'll take a fresh look at it tomorrow, 'do the math' and conquer this puppy. Then I realized all I had to do was draft it out, like 'the old dayz.'

I started with the unfinished outside measurement, drew a 'Square within a Square' block, added seam allowance and measured that. Sonofagun. When I pieced it this time it came out spot on. Then I remembered the instructions had also told me the 5-1/2" main blocks finished at six inches... The errors in this pattern are compounding.
The source of this pattern is from someone we all know and respect in blogland and in the quilt world, so what the??

It reminds me of the verse in I Thessalonians 5:21, "Test everything. Hold onto the good." Never assume until you do the work yourself. Anybody can have a bad pattern creation day...
*yeesh*

4 comments:

antique quilter said...

oh that is too bad.
I hate when I spend so much time doing something and the instructions are wrong...
I would write this person a note and let them know.
sorry this happened to you.
kathie

SuBee said...

AArrrggghhh! That sounds like **math**
I'd offer to try one for comparison but mine would come out at 7.35 so I'm no use! :-D

Fabricfaire said...

4 times??? yikes! At least it is a "happy ending"! When you explain the process, it sounds sooo easy! For you..not me!

Nancy Near Philadelphia said...

Such a sweet little block. Who'da thunk it would be such a troublemaker!

n, np