Wednesday, July 21, 2010

I am generally not a perfectionist. For the most part I make stuff for the fun of the process more than a perfect product. When I saw the "Craftastrophie" link up at Somewhat Simple I had to laugh because I have a cringe worthy project that I take out from time to time and then quickly shove back in the box. Maybe you have some advice...

This is an "I Spy" quilt top that I have been working on for a while.

 It was actually  one of my very first Citra-Solv projects. I started making it the day I received my first bottle of Citra-Solv in the mail.

I made these little patches that have carefully crafted I Spy rhyme and riddles to go with the patches on the quilt.
Craft disaster 030
Here is the disaster part that is really quite embarrassing.
Craft disaster 029

Look at the left edge! It doesn't line up at all. Each row has exactly the same number of patches. Told you I wasn't a perfectionist.  How could I ignore this problem for row after row? I tried adding some patches on the edges but this method was just pure crazy. So it sits folded in a box awaiting a quilting miracle.

Hope you are having a great day!

10 comments:

Life in Rehab said...

Add another band of yellow all the way around. After that much work, you have to be able to save it!

Nutsy Coco said...

Oh no Jane! I know how frustrating it is to have a project go wrong! I wish I had a good suggestion for how to fix it. I know it doesn't help now, but if you make another one in the future, the 1/4" seam is super important. If you don't have a quilting foot for you machine, you can use tape to make a line on it to follow and that will help tremendously when it comes to lining all the pieces up.

aSprinkling said...

What if you take the rows apart, add a solid piece to each end, line it up however you want, sew it back together, and square up each side when you're done. It will look intentional that it doesn't all line up!

Sarah said...

I've had that happen. But, I was able to just trim up that edge. I imagine if you trim it you are going to lose important bits?

littlemissmk said...

oh how frustrating jane! but don't give up- its super cute and can be fixed! i would agree with coco in that it was probably an issue with your seam allowances (i think that was where i went wrong) or maybe your blocks weren't cut all the same? i'm super lazy so i would just probably forgo all the seam ripping and just cut off the uneven side until its squared up. as someone already mentioned, this would be a bummer because you would lose some of your little "i spys" that the lucky recipient will be looking for on the quilt. and goodness knows, we gotta keep ariel! i would just incorporate the ones that were cut off onto the backing of the quilt- sounds weird but i think a little detail on the back would be cute and it also adds to the sneaky I-Spy-ness of the quilt. just a thought. :) how big is this by the way?

Kristi @ Creative Kristi said...

oh it looks like so much work! :( bummer! I have no suggestions since I have NO patience for cutting squares for quilts lol
Thanks for visiting my project flop!

Wendy @ Ramblings from the Sunshine State said...

Oh no! I totally had that happen on my first (and only, and currently unfinished!) quilt. I ended up taking the strips back apart and making sure the squares lined up as I stitched. Now it still needs to have the edges bound.

HollyLynne said...

Funny looking as it is, it is still a zillion times better than it would look if I'd tried to sew a quilt! :)

Natasha said...

I have had this happen too- I think of myself as a seat of my pants quilter. Would if you trimmed up the sides and made them even cutting through the eye spy blocks. Then you could say I spy (enter a number) half blocks. Just a thought. It is a great quilt don't give up.

Allyson/HBMomof2 said...

Oh my gosh, I laughed out loud and showed this to my husband. This is almost exactly the edge I had for my first quilt. Thank you for being so brave and showing it to us.