Our Creative Space

After having being forced to a halt on the Hot Spot project, while waiting for some fabric to arrive, I picked up a UFO.  As a relative newcomer to sewing, I don't have many of these, but this was my first project that was started two years ago in a burst of enthusiasm, then put aside due to the realisation that all was not going to plan.  It started as a simple Fence and Rail throw but I didn't do a great job of cutting the fabric and what I thought was a quarter inch machine foot wasn't, so when it came time to sew the strips together, the pattern didn't line up.  I tried a number of options to fix the problem, avoiding the obvious which was to just to unpick the strips and cut the blocks to a uniform size.  Needless to say, none of them were successful.  So last weekend, I unpicked the sides, measured the strips, cut the longer ones to a uniform length and put in borders.  Still true to form, I made another cutting error in the process that had to be adjusted for (you should be able to pick it out) but managed to salvage the project yet again and now I think it will make a good baby quilt for someone I know who is expecting later in the year.

So what have I learned over the last two years?:

- a quarter inch foot with a guide is an indispensable tool.

- despite being an accountant, quilting maths does my head in.

- cutting precisely remains my Holy Grail.

- don't agonise if something isn't perfect - a mistake can sometimes lead to something more interesting that the original concept (I repeat this over and over).

For other interesting projects, see what other Creative Spacers are up to here.