Knowing better is doing better

 I'm feeling extremely happy that I had only made 2 blocks of Urban Cabin before putting it away.  I hadn't even cut any additional parts, which is lucky for me.  I was sewing along on Monday morning and feeling optimistic that I would get the whole top (except for borders) done before lunch.  And then I hit a brick wall . . .

See that corner I circled?  One of the 2 original blocks was almost 3/4 of an inch too short.  Yikes!!!  Sometimes we can "fudge" a bit, but this was pretty extreme and obviously needed to be fixed before I could finish the top of the quilt.  So, a lot of measuring of seams had to happen to see what options I had to fix this.  None of my seams were very accurate 1/4" so I decided I could start by restitching scant 1/4" seams in that dark section.  

That helped a lot, and I added the narrow background pieces back on with scants seams as well.  It was obvious as I worked that I didn't cut very accurately either.  I am much more careful with cutting now that I know better.  Those ruler lines need to be ON the fabric, not on the mat.  

The cutting problem became even more obvious when I measured that longer peach section.  It was more than a 1/2" too short?  What was I doing when I cut these however many years ago?  Luckily in the project box was the leftover piece of the peach that was about 6" long.  I sewed it one, and then trimmed the whole thing to the more accurate 9.5" needed.  And it actually fit with that little extra. Yay!!  Turned out the long section of the wide background was way too short too, so I just cut a new pieces and put the original ones in the neutral scraps bin.    

Now that block actually fits with the others.  For some reason the other original block was only 1/4" too short, and it was in a corner so I could fudge that one enough to make it work.  

I've been quilting almost 40 years, but find that I'm always learning new techniques.  But even more important is that I'm always improving my skills.  Cutting accurately, pressing carefully without stretching, and sewing accurate consistent seams - probably these are the most important skills that keep improving.  On this project I saw how poor cutting and sloppy seams made a huge impact on the size of my block.  Lesson re-learned!!!

And the Urban Cabin top is ready for borders.  I bought a beautiful charcoal grey print for those outer borders, and hopefully will finish this top yet this week.