By Jove I think I’ve got it.
I hate machine piecing or at least I did. I was always afraid that I was going to make too many mistakes and in the process ruin perfectly wonderful fabric. For years a friend has been trying to convert me to the dark side and even helped me make a lap quilt with really large half square triangles. This made me just comfortable enough that I thought I’d take a sampler class at my local quilt shop. After all, I knew that with my growing fabric hoard I had to start doing at least some quilts by machine or I, the cats and quite possibly the hubby would be swallowed whole. I don’t think the hubby would notice as he’d be too intent on his computer screen, but still..
The sampler class caused a resurfacing of all those fears I’d initially had and gone was the comfort level I’d obtained with the lap quilt my friend had helped me with. I became obsessed with that quarter inch seam and whether my 12 inch blocks would ever square up. I’d burst into tears and shriek at the hubby (who did notice) and really began to hate one of my favorite hobbies. I finished the class, finished my quilt and am happy to say it looks pretty good. I decided to persevere and try another quilt but on my own so I signed up for a block of the month type of deal and found that, as the months went on, I began to feel comfortable again. Yes, there are definite mistakes in the first three blocks but nothing that can’t be “repaired” with either a little extra strip of fabric or some carefully placed borderie perse. Some of my blocks now even fit the required 12 ½ inches and can be squared up. I feel like an absolute wiz with snowball/flying geese type units. While I can’t say that I’m having fun yet I have begun to enjoy the machine piecing process just a little. I’ve got three more blocks to go along with sashing so keep your fingers crossed for me. Amazingly I’ve started thinking about my next couple of quilts and, yes, I’ll be doing them by machine.
I will never be a total convert as evidenced by the fact that I’ve got several hand piecing projects in process but I can definitely see doing more and more quilts by machine! My friend will be so proud.
Postscript – after writing this I worked on block no.10 and 11. Block no.10 came together perfectly – block no.11, not so much. I was off by a whole quarter on one edge. I have no ruddy idea why as I worked on the blocks together, overly cocky maybe? Instead of ripping my hair out, I simply added a strip to the bottom. It ain’t pretty but it is a solution. Fingers crossed that block no. 12 comes together.
You can see from my early blocks that there are some boo boos but none too horribly bad.
