Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Giveaway

Tasha, over at A Little Sweetness, is having a giveaway of some of her gorgeous, self designed fabric. You should go and have a look, her fabric is so sweet. She also has a shop so take a minute and visit there too. Tell her Mama Spark sent you!

I have a question, have any of you used a pattern only to find out that it isn't correct? I saw a block that I wanted to make. I saw a pattern for the block recently so I bought it. Last night I took the pattern out and read it. Templates, huh? Well, I guess I can try that. I read their directions on making the templates, translated the squares and rectangles into rotary cutting and made templates for the things I couldn't easily figure out how to rotary cut. Basically it is half of a lone star in a basket. Imagine my surprise when I went to read the "how to put the block together" section and it basically said, breaking this into units will make it easier, look at the graph lines and refer to the general instructions if you have any questions. Ok, I still had some questions, but the general instructions were basic sewing instructions, not really any info on how to put the diamonds together or do the MANY set in seams.

I've done set in seams so I will refresh myself and figure that out, but needed to tackle the 4 diamonds making up the big diamond of the star. Man o man, I have never ripped out so many seams in such a small project in my life!!! After a LOT of trial and error I managed to get the diamonds made into 4 bigger ones and those put together. Whew. It was only midnight at this point. I'll just lay out the block and take a look at how it will be when done, right? BIG mistake. All the setting pieces were not the correct sizes either. I could NOT deal with that at that time of night, so I went to bed. Tossed and turned until about 2:30am. UGH, got up at 5 and went to the gym and came home.

I'll just lay it out and take a photo to show you all what I am talking about. OMG!!! The basket pieces are not the right size either!!! I can't stand it. I was so disgusted I just went to work. So sorry, no photos for you today. I am going to have to play around with it to get it together. This is a block for charity and I just want to throw it in the garbage!!! BUT...I do like how the half of my star came out. I suppose I could just do another half of the star and forget the basket.
I promise I will take some pictures when I get home and share with you all.

Thanks, for listening. Oh and BTW, thanks for all the prayers too. BFF's daughter is doing ok, I don't have any more info than that but I suspect this is for the moment. Keep up the good work!!

4 comments:

Elaine Adair said...

Yes, I HAVE had patterns with errors and it only took one time, and after that I did my own, because I had lost faith in them. How maddening!!! Your's sounds additionally maddening, having sewn so much, losing sleep, etc. So I draft mine out, and add the seam allowances etc, when necessary.

I would DEFINITELY contact the shop or the maker of the pattern.

Sherrill said...

I always think I should check 'errata' before I begin a quilt but then I never do. Wonder if there was anything out there for this particular block. That IS aggravating!

Allie said...

Contact the designer, for sure. That's not acceptable. This is what scares me about pattern writing, lol!

Still praying for your friend!

Crispy said...

I agree, contact the designer. I have a feeling she didn't use a pattern tester or stood over her testers shoulder and told her how to fix it. This is why I always draft up a new block in EQ before I try to make it, at least I know my templates will be accurate.

Crispy

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