This is a good lesson for having BOM's that have sat in the closet for several years before attempting to get them out and begin construction. This one was ordered beginning January 2007. I waited almost 8 years to begin sewing it together. I have no recourse with the quilt shop who did this BOM, and now I have to work out all the problems that have arisen from this one.
I have mentioned in previous posts about working on this UFO. It is a round robin kind of quilt, with each month receiving a set of blocks that are sewn around the first four center blocks. So I am sewing along, getting to the third round of blocks, when I start putting the blocks in strips to sew around the first two rows, and lo and behold they don't fit! They are off by 2 inches! I know my cutting and stitching of blocks aren't perfect, but after all these years of doing this, they might be off no more than 1/8'. I was so frustrated, so I went back and reread the third round blocks pattern, re-measured the pieces, and nothing. Just by happenstance, I pulled out the future round of blocks patterns and instructions, to see how the quilt is going to proceed. Guess what? The instructions in month 5 states "Oops, we have been told by some astute quilter that we are off in our pattern by 2 inches, you have got to be kidding me. And, get this, their solution to the error, is to "fill in" with scrappy sashing around the blocks and center piece to make the next round of blocks fit. Really!! Then I thought I had better look at the rest of the instructions and see what further issues there might be in this quilt. And sure enough Month 8 has another problem, because the blocks for the rounds after making the first 2 inch adjustment are short by 2 inches, and again they suggest working in scrappy borders, sashing, or whatever clever ideas you as the quilter can come up with to make it fit. This is just the major problems with this BOM, I won't bore you with the rest of the minor ones, as it then just sounds like whining on my part.
I think this quilt pattern was done on one of the many quilt software programs that are available out in computer land. It looks good on paper, and surely one can trust computer math, right? Not so, more often than not. When I worked at a quilt shop, many quilts were designed on such software, and the shop had to deal with many errors along the construction of the quilt. Anyway, that's the end of my ranting, here is what I am doing on completing this top.
So, I tore out the quilt down to the first four blocks that are sewn together, and added a small scrappy border, and then added then second round.
I have mentioned in previous posts about working on this UFO. It is a round robin kind of quilt, with each month receiving a set of blocks that are sewn around the first four center blocks. So I am sewing along, getting to the third round of blocks, when I start putting the blocks in strips to sew around the first two rows, and lo and behold they don't fit! They are off by 2 inches! I know my cutting and stitching of blocks aren't perfect, but after all these years of doing this, they might be off no more than 1/8'. I was so frustrated, so I went back and reread the third round blocks pattern, re-measured the pieces, and nothing. Just by happenstance, I pulled out the future round of blocks patterns and instructions, to see how the quilt is going to proceed. Guess what? The instructions in month 5 states "Oops, we have been told by some astute quilter that we are off in our pattern by 2 inches, you have got to be kidding me. And, get this, their solution to the error, is to "fill in" with scrappy sashing around the blocks and center piece to make the next round of blocks fit. Really!! Then I thought I had better look at the rest of the instructions and see what further issues there might be in this quilt. And sure enough Month 8 has another problem, because the blocks for the rounds after making the first 2 inch adjustment are short by 2 inches, and again they suggest working in scrappy borders, sashing, or whatever clever ideas you as the quilter can come up with to make it fit. This is just the major problems with this BOM, I won't bore you with the rest of the minor ones, as it then just sounds like whining on my part.
I think this quilt pattern was done on one of the many quilt software programs that are available out in computer land. It looks good on paper, and surely one can trust computer math, right? Not so, more often than not. When I worked at a quilt shop, many quilts were designed on such software, and the shop had to deal with many errors along the construction of the quilt. Anyway, that's the end of my ranting, here is what I am doing on completing this top.
So, I tore out the quilt down to the first four blocks that are sewn together, and added a small scrappy border, and then added then second round.
At this point, it didn't give me the additional 2 inches needed for round three, so I added some more scrappy borders. Up close, it looks pretty tacky. But I kept going, only because I have three rounds of blocks already done.
After days of frustration, and adjusting I have the quilt top to this point. This has three rounds of blocks with two scrappy 2 1/2 inch borders. There is one around the first four blocks and around the third round of blocks. These scrappy borders are planned in the original pattern, but I also still had to add some scrappy 1 inch sashings here and there to get it to this point of construction. Now, at this point in the construction, all the adjustments don't look so tacky. I would also imagine that after getting it quilted, it will look even less tacky. We can only hope!!!
The fourth round of blocks are blocks called the Churn Dash. I will be making 40 of them. It will be awhile before I can get the next round done.
Yes, this will take some time to complete, as I have some Christmas sewing to accomplish the next few weeks. So, in reality, this project will be once again put on the back burner until after the first of the year.
Warmest...
OOPS!!! Really. Well I'm glad you figured out how to fix it. It looks great!
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