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Monday, January 2, 2012

Design Wall Monday and the tale of the possessed square



So here is where my wonky scrappy little star was the other day.  It got too big for the design wall which is really very small so then I threw a flannelette sheet on the design bed and kept building.  Then is got too big for the design double bed because I had got to the point where I was building the "drop" of the quilt.  I enlisted Husband to help me carefully pick up the sheet covered with hundreds of carefully placed 4" squares from the spare bedroom, through the sewing room to the downstairs living room floor.  This was interesting.  Filled with sounds of "encouraging" words and instructions from Husband and many squeals from me.

This is my scrap busting project for this year.  It fills me with great happiness.  The quilt will finish at 70" by 70".  No borders.  This has really gone together with few glitches.  Except... for the tale of the possessed block.

Yesterday, I began stitching all the 4" blocks together by rows.  No worries.  I simply pick up the squares in order from left to right, making sure the orientation of the squares stays the same.  Husband popped in with a question.  He asked what would happen if I changed the orientation of the square mid-stitching and how I managed to make sure everything lines up appropriately.  He had concerns since I was moving the squares form the living room floor to the sewing room.  I was filled with arrogant swagger and absolute confidence.  I let him know that based on my superior knowledge of wonky star construction, I just knew which way the points need to point.  Ha!

Until the possessed block.  I was at row 8 of 20.  After completing row 7, I noticed that a little square on the right was missing.  A little blank spot where there used to be a square.  I wandered around searching from room to room but no luck.  We are talking scraps, people, so I knew I was out of that fabric.  I stared threateningly at the fire place, wondering if somehow the wood duck was back and wanted a square of cotton.  I finally found the little piece, lying perfectly flat, under the sheet on which all the blocks where placed.  Seriously, how does this happen?  And then, this same square was the only square in the 400 squares to wind up in the wrong orientation and I had to unpick it.  Deflated my arrogance.  Returned me to quilting humility.

possessed square
And I will write up a tutorial for this with notes on what to do if a square becomes possessed.  I will link up with Judy's Design Wall Monday.  Have a super Monday!

7 comments:

  1. There's always one thing in every project. Hope it doesn't cause any more trouble!
    Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

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  2. I just love this quilt - and i can completely understand how it makes you so happy - it would me too - feel free to send it over if you want to test the theory

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  3. I love this. Are the stars really wonky or is an illusion? I love the way they touch. Great use for scraps. Is this an original design?

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  4. I love the quilt, now I'm tempted to start a quilt using these stars when I should be finishing some UFOs.

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  5. I absolutely adore your quilt - it's what I think quilts should be; made up of random scraps and lots of colours, not those modern 2-colour things people are putting together! Just found your blog and will definitely be following you.

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  6. Haha, great story! I often make mistakes when sewing together rows that should stay the same. I need more practice at that! Feel free to add an image of your scrappy stars quilt to the Flickr group. People will love to see it!

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