When the Quilt Says "No"
One of the things I love about quilting is that sometimes a design tells you exactly what it wants.
And sometimes it simply says, "No."
This week, I spent more time staring at fabric than actually sewing.
Somewhere in all that staring, I also reached out to a sewing friend who has been my sounding board for this project and also to my friends in the Sewing Bee community. Sometimes fresh eyes are exactly what you need when a quilt starts arguing with you.
One of many tries to make this block fit together!
The original plan looked perfect in EQ8. Two different lily designs surrounded a Cinderella center, and everything seemed straightforward enough on paper.
That's when I discovered I'd accidentally designed myself into Y seams.
More staring followed. And more questions. Thankfully, quilting friends are generous with both encouragement and advice, even when the answer turns out to be, "Yep, that's a Y seam."
This is a Y seam!
The floating lily blocks were eventually sewn first.
Four Y seams later, I had beautiful floating lilies, a newfound respect for quilters who enjoy that kind of piecing, and absolutely no desire to make four more.
The blocks weren't perfect. In fact, they're a bit wonky and will eventually need borders to bring them back to size.
And honestly?
That's okay.
Because one of the gifts of quilting is realizing there is usually more than one way to save a design.
I did it!
Rather than tackle four more Y seams, I went back to EQ8 and redesigned the center section.
Out went the parallelogram.
In came squares and half-square triangles.
Suddenly the construction became much simpler.
No more Y seams!
Rather than make four more Y seams, I redesigned the center. The top and bottom sections were the first to come together, and for the first time all week it felt like I was making progress.
Curious about the colors?
These lily blocks have been stitched from two bundles I washed and pulled from my shelf for this project — the Henry Glass Folio Basics Fat Quarter Bundle, which supplied many of the blacks and greens, and the soft pastels from the upcoming I've Got Hue, Babe – Light as a Feather Fat Quarter Bundle.
Mixing the two together has made these little flower experiments especially fun, and I'm already looking forward to seeing what else grows from these fabrics.
[See the Light as a Feather preorder here →]
One by one, the pieces started going together.
And I thought I was home free!
Not so fast.
After sewing the side sections to Cinderella, I discovered the top and bottom sections were short.
Nothing lined up.
And honestly, I still don't know exactly why.
The pieces were cut with my AccuQuilt.
The seam allowances were carefully sewn.
Everything should fit.
And yet, it doesn't.
My current theory is that Cinderella herself needs a tiny trim and that a true quarter-inch seam may work better than the scant quarter-inch I normally favor.
Which means Jack the Ripper (if you missed previous installments, that's the name of my seam ripper) has officially been invited back to the sewing table. Do any of your sewing supplies have names?
And yes, one of the floating lilies still has the wrong shade of green. Did you catch that above?
At first, I thought about fixing it.
Then I noticed that the neighboring Kermit the Frog block uses that same green, and suddenly it looked less like a mistake and more like a design choice.
Because sometimes mistakes become design choices.
Sometimes redesigns become improvements.
And sometimes perseverance doesn't mean making it perfect.
It simply means refusing to give up.
Hopefully by next week Cinderella and her lilies will finally be playing nicely together.
Although, if history is any indication, this quilt may still have other ideas.
