Today I started Block 6 out of 12 for my Block of the Month. I find I have trouble visualizing in which directions to sew the blocks, particularly triangles and Flying Geese. This is how I pieced my block together:
It doesn’t look bad, does it? In fact, intuitively it makes sense. However, this is what the pattern calls for:
What are the differences? First, I should have sewn the Flying Geese on the diagonal, and I totally messed up on the triangles at the edge of the Flying Geese. I stared at them and stared at them and then sewed them on once again in the wrong direction.
Another mistake:
See the top white square and green triangles? That’s how I sewed them together at first. Only when I was ready to sew them onto the block did I realize that I had misplaced one triangle and that it would never work. So, I got out my seam ripper and fixed them. But I have to carefully hold the triangles against the white square to make sure I do not sew it wrong again.
And finally, this is what happened:
I started ripping the entire block apart and then gave up. I ripped this out so many times I am going back to the quilt store to buy new fabric to revise this block tomorrow. They won’t be surprised; I have already sewn each block twice to get it right.
So I can’t visualize what the completed sections of the block are supposed to look like. Is this a common novice mistake, or is it something that is particularly unique to me? Will this make it impossible for me to quilt, or will my ability to visualize shapes and piecing improve over time? Will I still continue to enjoy doing this if I make so many mistakes each time I try?
Or should I just stick with squares and rectangles? I do pretty well with T-shirt quilts that I design myself….
Comments, anyone? Most of the blogs I read about quilting and sewing show the bloggers’ successes; in this blog, I will do some of that but also want feedback on my mistakes.
Mistakes are a part of life for everyone, I realize. Only in quilting do you get a ‘re-do’….at work, at home, anywhere, if you make a mistake, it is done. You cannot undo it. With this sewing, I can undo it. It is time-consuming, and frustrating, but I can do it. Tonight, I am going to start another block. Wish me luck.
