Done is better than perfect may lead you to believe I am a willy-nilly sewer. For me, this phrase embodies a freeing philosophy and embodies more than just the process of sewing accurate seams. Sometimes things happen in our sewing process like misreading patterns and measurements or just plain not having enough fabric to begin with.
If you have been sewing along with Marcia and I, we have been working on Chatsworth. I chose to make mine scrappy and I started with a fat quarter pack of fabric and ignored Doug’s fabric requirements. I knew we had more fabric at the store and could purchase what I needed to fill in. Start chuckling now…..
I misread my cutting instructions and cut 60 pieces all an inch too short. I was faced with the dilemma of what to do. I had already sewn over half of the pieces and was in the squaring up phase when I discovered my mistake. I failed the epic rule of making one before cutting them all the pieces rule. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, first, it was now past Christmas and we were sold out of the fabric. I was faced with the reality that there was no more fabric that I could cut and it was a quilt that I needed to complete. I had the option of making my pieces all a little smaller to accommodate my mistake and then cut larger sashing to make up the difference. That totally would have worked.
By pure luck, I discovered if I shifted my strip a little lower, giving me only an 1/8th inch seam allowance, that was just enough to get the required flying goose size. No one would be the wiser. However, I still had two sections that were a half inch too small and I needed them both. I opted to add a little extra sashing and place them on the outside edge of my quilt. I happen to know the edge of my quilt that is next to the wall is rarely seen and that would be the best placement option.
There were other areas of my quilt that I didn’t plan ahead for the matching star corners in the finishing blocks that needed to have substitute pieces and two places where I had to seam my fabric to have a large enough piece to cut the required section. Gasp, there is even one spot where the fabrics are different within the same piece.
Often, these roadblocks cause our quilts in progress to go into a permanent timeout situation. I didn’t have that option for this quilt and I worked around my error to find a solution that would work for me. My quilt is on the longarm ready to quilt and soon will be bed ready.
The quilt is beautiful. It is a representation of a creative journey. It will keep my family cozy. Done is Better than perfect!
Happy Sewing! Joy