Thursday, October 3, 2013

Catching Mistakes

I’m a big fan of laying out a quilt several times during it’s construction.  I think it stems from my dislike of the seam ripper.  I’d rather catch a mistake before I make it than go back and re-do.  I have a large design wall that I use, but I also just use the floor a lot.  A lot.

The design wall is great for laying out blocks to decide how they’ll be arranged, but the floor is better once I have rows or large sections of a quilt put together.

Dr. Seuss Quilt in progress

I’ve been working on a display quilt for a local shop and during the process I kept laying everything out to make sure it was going well.  I’m sure glad I did too!  Once I had the larger elements of the quilt assembled, I placed it all out on the floor and then saw this:

   Dr. Seuss Quilt in progress

Did you catch it?  I almost missed it!  Lucky for me I just had a few seams to rip out on that left section of chevrons.  Within a few minutes I had it pieced back together in the correct order. 

I finished the quilting and binding yesterday, so today (if the weather cooperates) is picture day! 

Swirl quilting

5 comments:

  1. On your zig zag quilt….have you thought of making the yellow and red stripes zig across one another? i think it would make the quilt look very modern….and require a few more zigs in place of the stripe you have laid out. If you do not use the idea…I may need too! Good luck!

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    1. Hey Felice! I really like your idea - and it would make it more modern. However, because this was a display for my local quilt shop I was assigned a specific pattern to use for this particular quilt. You should totally try your idea though!

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  2. No one would know you didn't plan it that way : ) I love zig zag quilts

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  3. Love your quilt! Do you have any advice for a wannabe quilter? I have arthritis in my knees and can't get down on the floor to lay out a quilt. Is there any other way to do it? Thanks!

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    1. Hi Marianne
      I used to use our large dining room table and lay out as much as I could at one time. Sometimes I would then take a photo of each section that I had laid out on the table. I would look at them on my computer next to each other to try and get an idea of what the whole thing would look like. I've seen portable design walls too - some people just thumbtack large pieces of white flannel to their wall while they're working on a quilt. Then it can easily be taken down and folded up for next time.

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