Success!

After I published my post last week I had a revelation.

The plan for this week was to start the block over from scratch. I thought it was necessary because I had done everything ‘right’ and it still turned out bunchy on the ends. It turns out I didn’t need to though.

As I was looking through the pictures I had taken throughout the process and I realized that each piece looked perfect. The problem I was having wasn’t until the very last step when I put the four pieces together into one block. With this in mind, I picked out the seams to separate the remaining three intact pieces. I then set out to redo only the fourth one, the one I completely dismantled. I’m kicking myself for doing that by the way.

Once I had the fourth section completed I tried once again to attach them all together, this time paying extra attention to how they lined up at the ends.

I am really happy with the results. One corner is absolutely perfect, two are fine, and only one is making me a bit antsy. I’ll take it though. I would pick it out and try again but there is a limit to how many times you can sew in one area before your fabric starts to resemble swiss cheese.

I was happy enough with how it turned out ot move on to the applique part of the block. I was able to machine quilt the yellow portion rather than doing it by hand. The overall look of the finished block is perfect. I love the colors together and I have the 1/4″ seam allowance that I need on all of the corners.

I haven’t been able to tackle the smaller blocks yet because I was out of town for a few days this week to kick off our summer vacation. I was at my parents house which was a blast, but it limited how much time I actually had to sew with a machine. My mom has a sewing machine that I know she wouldn’t mind letting me use, but it is located in the room that two of my daughters were sleeping in and it would have been impossible to use it with the blow up mattress in there.

The lack of a sewing machine didn’t keep me down though. I took this opportunity to finally finish the binding on the table runner that I finished quilting weeks and weeks ago. I know you can bind by machine, but I prefer doing it by hand for now. It was nice to sit and visit with my mom while I sewed away.

The overall finished product makes me so happy. I was so nervous about the colors, but I think they really work together. The red border finishes it off nicely. The best part? I didn’t have to watch a video to remind myself how to do the binding even though I hadn’t done one since November. Yes!

How many of you have unfinished projects sitting around your house? It feels so good to have one moved from my ‘to be finished’ pile into my ‘completed’ pile. Well…sort of completed pile. You better believe I’ll be using this bad boy now that it’s done!