Quilt in a Day Forums

ok - I'm sure all of us have had disasters and so we all won't feel "too" bad about them, let's share, ok?
I'll go first.
This is a current disaster. I'm making a quilt for my nephew. This is the very last of the quilts for kid relatives. Anyway, I'm using one of the Turning Twenty books. I had all the blocks pieced and then cut them in half, fixed it the way I wanted the blocks to go, and proceeded to re-piece the blocks. And NONE of the seams line up. NONE I SAY! AGH! It seems I cut each block the wrong way. I would have thought that even though that happened, it would make sense to my feeble mind that they would still match but no. So, lucky me gets to take apart all twenty blocks, re-size, and then give it another go. Sigh. Normally, I would just chuck the whole thing, call it a ufo and start again. Can't this time. Sigh. So, is this the worst disaster? If so, well, I'll give myself a medal! LOL!

So forget the pattern and try something diff. Why not just do like Caroline did and make a trellis look with a solid strip or something in between the cut pieces. I am not sure what you are doing but I wouldn't give up or redo just yet. I have never done that pattern you are using but just a suggestion. I hate to redo lots of blocks. Too discouraging and it stretches the fabric sometimes too. But that is just me.

I have had lots of disasters but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade or in some case just open a whole lemonade stand. LOL
I don't have time to list them now but just wanted to say I understand, good luck, and happy quilting. Hugs, Shirley Mae

I don't usually have problems with the peicing it's the quilting part that I'm lacking in I do a horible job I have just decided to hand quilt my projects because when I'm trying to stich in the ditch I go all over the place and my stipling goes bad to I used to blame my machine and then I got a brand new machine and now I have no one to blame but me so my quilts look good till I quilt them and I don't have the money to send them out to get quilted so I just live with them and keep on trying Tina

I have done things like attaching a whole row of blocks up-side-down but that's easy to fix.

Tina, I have a suggestion if you can't stitch in the ditch very well. I can't either so I do "shadow quilting". That is sewing a line of stitching 1/4 inch from the seams in the block. My mother always did it that way. If you are using a walking foot that is more than a qt. inch you can get tape that is a qt. inch.
I never try to stipple. I can't do that either. I use stenciles, usually a grid stencil but sometimes a clam shell in places that others might stipple. I think there is always a way around something we can't do. Of course, we could always practice, if we wanted to take the time to learn something we really want to do.

I agree with Ittybittygma, do something different with the blocks. Even go with the not matching. What would happen if you grouped them up in 4's and turned them 1/4 turns, so the same corner is in the center of the big block?

Kathy

Probably my worst quilting disaster was when I sandwiched a quilt with lots of basting spray and lots of pins (was determined not to get any puckers while quilting) and then noticed the backing was wrong side out! I contemplated taking it all apart for awhile, but I knew I was in for a "sticky" situation so I just left it and quilted it like that. Wouldn't you know...not one pucker either! One day I will laugh about it. Hopefully this is one mistake I only make once.

Well, I've finished the quilt top and am in the process of sandwiching it. I posted a picture of it under quilt photos. Thanks for your ideas - appreciate the all.

I am working on a triple Irish chain right now and have made the most mistakes I've ever made (in my short quilting life). I am putting a seminole border on it. One of the fabrics is white tone on tone and I sewed one of the strips (42") upside down. I did not discover it until I had cut the whole strip set and had started sewing the seminole strip sets. I'm not about to take apart 4, 6' long strip sets!! Also somehow some of pressings went wrong and to get my seams to nestle together, I had to twist them....one end is going left and one is going right. I will just clip them at one end and press them flat but I worry that it will fray there and the top will fall apart. I will have to think of a way to hand stitch them on the back (of the top) so that it won't show thru to the front of the top. Am I making any sense??
Ruth