Yesterday was our monthly sewing day at "the lake house" and I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to try the Kwik Pinwheel/Flower pattern that I bought last winter in North Carolina. It was a good thought, but probably not the best idea to try out a brand new pattern that was going to require a bit of concentration. You see, if you were to look back at any of my old report cards from grade school somewhere on the card there would be a phrase something like this, "Susan is distracted easily. When she improves her concentration abilities, I know her work will improve." Apparently that is still the case, because I proved today that I cannot talk to my friends and piece a top without making mistakes...lots and lots of mistakes! My first mistake was not making sure that my fabric was all right side up when cutting the pieces for the pinwheels. Now I could say that the light was bad or that white on white print is hard to see, but the truth is that I only skimmed the directions and missed the note that specifically said "All your fabric should be right side up." My second and biggest mistake was made when I "squared up" the blocks. Once again, I wasn't paying attention and misread the measurements for centering the 9 1/2" ruler on the block which resulted in a pinwheel that had two long sections and two short sections which meant that none of the seams were going to match up. All was not lost though, I would just trim the long sides to match the short sides...easy! Wrong! Can you believe that I trimmed the short side of not one but two blocks before realizing what I was doing? I tried to keep the cursing to a minimum and the spectators did a pretty good job at containing their laughter, but it was at that point that I decided to pack the whole mess up and call it a day. Once I got home, I surveyed the damaged blocks and realized that I could re-re-square them and the blocks would still be large enough to make a nice sized Project Linus quilt. Just a few distraction free cuts with the rotary cutter and I now have twelve perfectly uniform pinwheel blocks. Granted, they are an inch smaller than they should be, but at least all of the seams should match up once they are put together!
About Me
- Susan
- I am a wife, mama and grandmama getting through life by hanging on to a needle and thread.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Concentration Abilities
Yesterday was our monthly sewing day at "the lake house" and I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to try the Kwik Pinwheel/Flower pattern that I bought last winter in North Carolina. It was a good thought, but probably not the best idea to try out a brand new pattern that was going to require a bit of concentration. You see, if you were to look back at any of my old report cards from grade school somewhere on the card there would be a phrase something like this, "Susan is distracted easily. When she improves her concentration abilities, I know her work will improve." Apparently that is still the case, because I proved today that I cannot talk to my friends and piece a top without making mistakes...lots and lots of mistakes! My first mistake was not making sure that my fabric was all right side up when cutting the pieces for the pinwheels. Now I could say that the light was bad or that white on white print is hard to see, but the truth is that I only skimmed the directions and missed the note that specifically said "All your fabric should be right side up." My second and biggest mistake was made when I "squared up" the blocks. Once again, I wasn't paying attention and misread the measurements for centering the 9 1/2" ruler on the block which resulted in a pinwheel that had two long sections and two short sections which meant that none of the seams were going to match up. All was not lost though, I would just trim the long sides to match the short sides...easy! Wrong! Can you believe that I trimmed the short side of not one but two blocks before realizing what I was doing? I tried to keep the cursing to a minimum and the spectators did a pretty good job at containing their laughter, but it was at that point that I decided to pack the whole mess up and call it a day. Once I got home, I surveyed the damaged blocks and realized that I could re-re-square them and the blocks would still be large enough to make a nice sized Project Linus quilt. Just a few distraction free cuts with the rotary cutter and I now have twelve perfectly uniform pinwheel blocks. Granted, they are an inch smaller than they should be, but at least all of the seams should match up once they are put together!
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6 comments:
Cute blocks! Know what you mean, though it is harder to concentrate when chatting...lol
Good to know I am not the only family member with a touch of ADD! I think they look great though Sue!
From what I could tell by looking at the trash can at the lake house yesterday, you could probably have enough to make another Linus quilt from them...
Oh well done for selvedging a project from your mistakes. I sometimes have days like that where I know I'm not thinking straight and I have to just back away from the craftroom...slowly so I don't knock anything flying or trip over.
We've all had days like that! Glad you were able to salvage the blocks.
Been there, done that!
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