I forget that I can’t do everything. I have been into this quilting thing for almost a year now and I feel like I should be an expert. My skills have gotten so much better, but I am years, possibly decades away from being an expert.
A year ago I didn’t know how to thread my bobbin correctly. Now I am pretty darn close to competent free motion quilting on my wee machine.
A year ago I couldn’t get my mitered corners on my binding to look like anything more than a smush. Now I can do mitered corners even on a machine-sewn binding.
A year ago I didn’t know what “HST” stood for. Now I can make HSTs pretty close to the correct finished size and get the points to be pointy. For the most part.
The Moda Modern Building Blocks pattern had me at “Hello”. I love the cohesive sampler look right now. I joined a monthly subscription for fabric for four blocks a month.
Very difficult. I guess I had heard that sewing on the bias was difficult, but since the main bias sewing I have done was HSTs that were trimmed down to the right size, I didn’t see a problem.
Whoa, was I wrong. Three out of the four blocks this month were lots of pointy bias. And the instructions don’t provide a listing of what the finished size of the HSTs or flying geese are supposed to be, and so I didn’t know what I was trimming to.
The center of my first block ended up WAY small. So I added a border. And it was adorable.
My next block was also way off. So I added a border. And it isn’t adorable.
My third block I sought guidance on the internets. I used heavy startch and a lot of wishing and it is only slightly too small. Better, but still not right.
Sigh. I can’t do everything. I am still learning.
Let me repeat that, for my own benefit. I can’t do everything. I am still learning.
There are moments when I am so proud of myself – little private moments at my sewing table – getting a point right, understanding a pattern, nailing a mitered corner. Those moments are wonderful.
So I need to make peace with bias piecing and work and wait for my moment when I get it right. My sampler quilt will most likely have lots of extra borders in the blocks. And that will be ok. Let me repeat that, for my own benefit. It will be ok.
We need valleys for the peaks.
The last block for this month was this little cross – a little reprieve in the biased sewing. And it ended up sized perfectly. A reassuring little win on this quilty journey.
weeknight quilting 