Have I said that piecing is NOT a favorite method of quilting? Let me repeat it...piecing is NOT a favorite method of quilting. BUT it is a necessarily evil (evil in my mind) that I have to do periodically to make sure I can do it plus to help put together all the applique blocks. Soooo I looked through my stash and found the first two blocks of the Civil War BOM that Rose from Custom Quilt Kits is offering. I remembered that I decided to do this since Rose advertised it as:
These blocks are a beginner's dream! Each block comes pre cut--all you do is sit down and sew!
http://www.customquiltkits.com/CivilWarBOM/
Sounds easy doesn't it? Have a seat everybody and let me tell you the story of how this first block got put together...eventually. First of all let me specify that any problems I had with it are all mine. The pieces were cut with a GO! (Studio I think) and are nice fabrics. So what's my problem? Me.
It all started after I got back from biscuits and gravy with mom. I pulled out block one and looked at the fabric and then read through the directions. The material that I was looking at didn't match the picture! Oh dear. Ok. time to try and figure out which material was substituted for what. Of course if I had looked further into the see through plastic bag, I might have noticed that Rose put in a picture of what the block should look like with the material that I had been sent. See what I mean? It's not the pattern, it's me. LOL.
So now armed with the material and the directions I started out to sew the pieces together. Then I noticed the first two pieces were sewn together wrong and I unstitched them. Then I noticed that I sewed them wrong AGAIN (different wrong though) and unstitched them again. I was now catching on to the fact that I should lay out the pieces first so that I could have them all put down right and then sew. Hmmmm. That wasn't going right either. I couldn't figure out how to turn the parallelogram correctly to meet up with the half square triangles. I was convinced that it was wrong. I was about to throw it away when I had an "AH HA!" moment. Why didn't I put them up on my design board? That is why I made one.
Oh yeah, that makes it so much easier. All the lines lined up where they should and now it looked like the picture said it should look. Now it should be easy peasy. Just sew them in the order they are on the board. I can do that. In fact I did it more than once because I still sewed a couple of the pieces together on the wrong side. See what I mean? It's me.
Ta Da! FINALLY it was sewn together. So I sent off a picture of it to my friend Connie. We text each other our progress pix on the weekends and she said nice...just flip the last two rows. Sigh. Thanks Connie. No, I really do mean thanks. I had sewed them together wrong because in the above picture all the flying geese are pointing up and they shouldn't be.
So out came the seam ripper again and unstitched the two halves. Flipped the lower half around and resewed it. I looked at the seams as I flipped it to the back to iron the seam down and noticed....I sewed it wrong. I bet all of you knew that was coming didn't you. This was easier to correct though. I might not have corrected it correctly but I was more than ready to set this block aside. I had sewn a wider seam than a 1/4". I had forgotten that my sewing machine stitch starts at zero when it starts up and I hadn't changed it to 1. It affects the needle position. I was about to grab the seam ripper, yet again, and then had another "AH HA" moment. Since I was going to be stitching a narrower seam I just left the original seam. That way it acted like my pins. So I sewed my 1/4" seam and THEN unstitched the wrong one. All that being said....it's done.
There's more flying geese in the second block also. Hey Kat! Can I count these as my bucket list geese? LOL.
I did have a pleasant surprise. At breakfast this morning, my brother handed me a box. Inside it was some sewing things. It appears that somebody had gone to a garage sale and gotten a box of sewing supplies. They had been passed around and I was next in line.
I can use some of it so it was fun going through to see what was in there.
How has your day been?
These blocks are a beginner's dream! Each block comes pre cut--all you do is sit down and sew!
http://www.customquiltkits.com/CivilWarBOM/
Sounds easy doesn't it? Have a seat everybody and let me tell you the story of how this first block got put together...eventually. First of all let me specify that any problems I had with it are all mine. The pieces were cut with a GO! (Studio I think) and are nice fabrics. So what's my problem? Me.
It all started after I got back from biscuits and gravy with mom. I pulled out block one and looked at the fabric and then read through the directions. The material that I was looking at didn't match the picture! Oh dear. Ok. time to try and figure out which material was substituted for what. Of course if I had looked further into the see through plastic bag, I might have noticed that Rose put in a picture of what the block should look like with the material that I had been sent. See what I mean? It's not the pattern, it's me. LOL.
So now armed with the material and the directions I started out to sew the pieces together. Then I noticed the first two pieces were sewn together wrong and I unstitched them. Then I noticed that I sewed them wrong AGAIN (different wrong though) and unstitched them again. I was now catching on to the fact that I should lay out the pieces first so that I could have them all put down right and then sew. Hmmmm. That wasn't going right either. I couldn't figure out how to turn the parallelogram correctly to meet up with the half square triangles. I was convinced that it was wrong. I was about to throw it away when I had an "AH HA!" moment. Why didn't I put them up on my design board? That is why I made one.
Ta Da! FINALLY it was sewn together. So I sent off a picture of it to my friend Connie. We text each other our progress pix on the weekends and she said nice...just flip the last two rows. Sigh. Thanks Connie. No, I really do mean thanks. I had sewed them together wrong because in the above picture all the flying geese are pointing up and they shouldn't be.
So out came the seam ripper again and unstitched the two halves. Flipped the lower half around and resewed it. I looked at the seams as I flipped it to the back to iron the seam down and noticed....I sewed it wrong. I bet all of you knew that was coming didn't you. This was easier to correct though. I might not have corrected it correctly but I was more than ready to set this block aside. I had sewn a wider seam than a 1/4". I had forgotten that my sewing machine stitch starts at zero when it starts up and I hadn't changed it to 1. It affects the needle position. I was about to grab the seam ripper, yet again, and then had another "AH HA" moment. Since I was going to be stitching a narrower seam I just left the original seam. That way it acted like my pins. So I sewed my 1/4" seam and THEN unstitched the wrong one. All that being said....it's done.
There's more flying geese in the second block also. Hey Kat! Can I count these as my bucket list geese? LOL.
I did have a pleasant surprise. At breakfast this morning, my brother handed me a box. Inside it was some sewing things. It appears that somebody had gone to a garage sale and gotten a box of sewing supplies. They had been passed around and I was next in line.
I can use some of it so it was fun going through to see what was in there.
How has your day been?
4 comments:
Oh no! I'm sorry you had so much trouble, but it was fun reading about it. Sort of like the experience my Mom had with block 3 (hopefully you will have an easier time!)
Rose
Oh how much fun !! Love it when everything finally comes together!! And surprise packages are always fun!!
your block looks very nice, after all that extra effort! on those days when i have to frog stitch so many times, i usually end up walking away because if i don't i just keep making more and more errors.
piecing doesn't give me that much grief, however applique is another story. and your applique is beautiful! guess we all have something we are good at! :)
@Rose - Don't worry. It's more me than you or the kit. I'll never be very good at piecing which is perfectly fine by me. I do the best that I can and every once in awhile stretch out of my comfort zone. The kits are great because the fabric is already cut for me and I didn't have to buy extra fabric just for this. Your prices are VERY reasonable also. Keep up the good work.
@Esther - Thanks Esther. You know me. I'll keep at it and I've already used some of my surprise gift so it works out quite well.
@bunbear - I almost walked away but I was determined not to get too far behind on the BOM otherwise I'd never do it. I hope to get block two done this week. Thanks on the compliment on the applique. That too is still a work in progress but isn't all our crafts? Quilters compliment each other. You do the piecing and I'll do the applique. Some day we'll meet in the middle and look at our projects and say..."I remember when I wouldn't even think that I could do that. Now look at it! It's finished and *I* did it." :)
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