Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Wrong Way

Previously on Lakeview Stitching....

Click here to catch up on the story so far.
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So, I had mistakenly drafted the patterns for my houses backwards! Argh!

"Well, does it really matter?" I thought.

"Finish it in one day," I thought.

"Just keep going," I thought, and I made a start on the roof pieces:


I had decided right away that I wasn't going to worry if the grain was straight in the pieces, because that way insanity lies, but I did want the plaid in the roofs to follow the angle. I made myself a cutting template for the roof pieces to get the angle right, and I was rather amazed at how well it worked.

But, while I was sewing the roofs, doubt crept in. I was hoping to hang the finished quilt in my bedroom, and I didn't want to look at it every morning and think, "that's wrong." That wouldn't be a good way to start the day. I packed it up.

Then I started to see other quilts made from shirts around the blogosphere. Isn't it funny how that happens? Diane at Butterfly Threads made a lovely keepsake quilt for her mother from her father's shirts. I met a new quilter in The Great Canadian Blogathon, Ilene, who showed a wonderful quilt made from blue shirtings and red hearts.

So, I decided to start over with a correct pattern. There was enough fabric left if I went with a straight binding rather than the bias binding that I had originally planned. I labelled all the roof pieces above as "wrong," but saved them just in case I needed the fabric. The four front pieces went in the bin, because there was no way to reuse them.

I made all nine side pieces in one batch:


I could have used the old foundations for these, because the sides are the same either way. "Hold on," I thought. "the sides are the same either way! I could use these with both the right houses and the wrong houses. Five right, four wrong, the quilt is done, and I won't even have to cut any more fabric!"

I fished the first set of fronts out of the bin, which fortunately had nothing else too bad in it. I still had to pack it up again for the Christmas break, but for the past three days now I've been sewing steadily. I can't believe I thought I could do it in one day! Smaller isn't necessarily faster, I'm realizing. But, it's like it was meant to be this way all along -- not one wasted stitch.

The wrong way...


...and the right way...


...soon (hopefully) to be joined as one. :)

19 comments:

  1. Could you have the wrong ways facing the right ways? At any rate, the shirting makes a great quilt fabric.

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    1. Thanks, Cynthia! The fabric is actually a little wilder than I expected. But at this point, I just have to finish and see how it turns out!

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  2. Oh, my, I got a headache reading this. Plaids going this way, roofs going that way. How did you ever get these things finished? They are darling, by the way and my headache is subsiding, Thanks for asking.

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    1. LOL, sorry Mary Ellen! Nothing is ever as easy as I think it's going to be, but, I'm hoping it will be worth it. :)

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  3. That's a pretty neat solution. It's so easy to lose perspective when dealing with the geometry. How good is that keepsake quilt by Diane? Wow. Such a good thing to do, to check out others' work to regain your focus. I really love the story.

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    1. Thanks very much, Jillian! Yes, Diane does very nice work -- and it was fun to see that we both had the same idea to set the shirts with plain white. But hers is much more meaningful.

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  4. Yay, It's all working out just right!! These houses are going to be so gorgeous in the red shirt fabric.

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    1. Thanks, Rachael! I am having some doubt now that I see how jumbled they look, but hopefully that will all shake out!

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  5. you have certainly persevered with this project and now all is going well, look forward to seeing it complete

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    1. Thanks, Margaret! I think all the kinks are sorted. Let's hope it was worth it!

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  6. Those houses do take quite a bit of time to sew. That's why I've never made the schoolhouse quilt I always wanted to make! Great progress now. You're on a roll!

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    1. Thanks Audrey! Yes, they're slower, and matching the corners is trickier than I expected too!

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  7. Excellent recovery and solution to the problem. I love the idea of plaid being featured in a quilt, and in particular, the red plaid that you're using. Your quilt is going be fantastic. Bravo to you for not giving up.

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    1. Thanks you! How could I give up, when the finish always seemed closer than it really was? Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to finish the top at least.

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  8. Yay nearly a finished quilt! Love the problem solving and sometimes it is worth hanging onto the wrong bits for a while.

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    1. Thanks very much for both your comments, Katherine! Sometimes I need to throw away the failures in order to clear my mind for the next try, but I am glad that this time, I didn't throw them too far!

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  9. I love your repurposed shirt and the houses going in two different directions are delightful. What a happy mistake!

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I'm told Blogger has been bouncing some comments, so if it happens to you I'm sorry! But the settings look right so I can't explain it. In any case, thanks for reading!

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