Sunday, March 31, 2013

A Screeching Halt

March has been such a successful month for me.  I have finished a number of old WIPS that have been hanging around for years,  I purged my fabric stash again and cleaned out older fabrics for scrap quilts, and worked on some new piecing designs.  My design walls were constantly full and a total of 8 quilts were finished.



But the quilt I was really hoping to get off the design wall was the christmas quilt I started back in January.  I have been slowly cutting it and piecing the blocks between all the other projects.  It is one of those designs you really have to get it all up on a wall before you start sewing the blocks together.





Well, I got it all laid out so I finally decided to start to piece it all together and it quickly came to a screeching halt...

The first color went together perfectly but when I got to the next color.....
Oh crap dear!


It appears I have proceeded to miscut about half of my blocks!  I am hoping I just need to trim off  about 1/4" but I will need to go through and check each one to identify which ones need trimming.


Grrr....Usually this is where a project is bagged up and thrown in the closet.



But I am determined to persevere through this and keep working on it.  I will try and trim a few each evening until I'm sure everything will fit...


The truly frustrating thing is I know exactly what I did.  I cut the blocks over two nights and on one night, I obviously misread my ruler and lined up the fabric to a white line rather than a black.  And the sad part is, when I teach a class using these specialty rulers, I always suggest to my students to mark their rulers with some neon highlighting tape.

That will teach me for not listening to my own advice!


If you haven't seen this product, it is made by Omni-Grid and is called Glow-Line Tape.  It has three rolls to a package in fun neon colors.  The tape is low tack so it doesn't leave a residue on your rulers when you peel it off.  I suggest having some on hand.  If you are a local customer, I have some in stock if you can't find it.  It is a simple thing that can save you so much time....


Thank goodness this quilt is for next christmas so I have another 8 months to work on it!

Sharing this time saving idea with a few linky parties:

Let's Get Acquainted at Pixels to Patchwork
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Show and Tell Tuesday at I Have To Say...
WIP Weds at Freshly Pieced

15 comments:

Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts said...

Oh grr! Don't ya hate that?! Good luck!

Taryn V. said...

Oh, I totally understand how frustrating that is! I am definitely going to be using your advice about neon tape in the future, because I have made the same mistake once or twice! Good luck on getting it finished. The blocks are beautiful!

Thanks for linking up to Let's Get Acquainted this week!

Anonymous said...

Been there/done that.....repeat...ugh!! It is beautiful, though!!!! Uber hugs....Doreen

Char said...

Oh so sorry. I've done it before myself. The good thing is you didn't cut them too small!

Sue C said...

So frustrating but worth persevering as the quilt is going to be gorgeous.

Jessica Pyykkonen said...

Best of luck on the Christmas quilt! Thank you for the links to the linkies :)

Lorna McMahon said...

Thanks for sharing your frustration. I just finished a quilt top in which I too had trouble while trimming. And it is typical that we don't always listen to our best advice, eh? Love the neon tape - great idea!

Teje Karjalainen said...

Great tips! I'm just making a quilt with that same pattern! x Teje

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

What neat blocks and hopefully you can use all of them. I've been known to use the wrong mark for cutting once in a while too. Thanks for sharing.
Freemotion by the River Linky Party Tuesday

Allison said...

I have a package of that neon tape, and it really is handy. your quilt is looking lovely, good luck with the trimming.

thebutterflyquilter said...

It will be so worth it to finish it though! It will be beautiful!

Leanne Parsons said...

The quilt will be beautiful when finished! Thanks for the neon tape tip...I'll be trying that. I love the name of your blog, by the way, and I totally agree!

quiltingfrenzy said...

I am sure it will be lovely when finished! I love the neon tape, it has saved me on several occasions.

Barb said...

I found you via Freshly Pieced! Love the blocks, and thanks for the tip!

Amy said...

I love the triangle/blocks. I am also working on the same kind of quilt. I use the clearview ruler and the highlight tape. if you can not get blocks to line up,ya could always make another quilt using them.

01 09 10