This is the first block where I’m sewing pieced squares to plain squares. The problem with that is if any of the seams are slightly off in the pieced square, it ends up smaller or bigger than the plain square, and things don’t match up.

Quilting seams are officially 1/4″ from the edge of the fabric, but the fact is that the thread you are sewing the seam with, and the folded over layers of fabric, take up some space. To account for this, you should sew slightly less than a 1/4″ seam … a scant quarter inch.

If you sew exactly a 1/4″ seam, then the block will end up being ever so slightly smaller than expected. Multiply that by many seams in a block, and the small discrepancies really add up. This frequently results in pulled hair and/or tears of frustration; possibly even temper tantrums.

I don’t quite have the hang of the scant quarter inch yet, but my problem is the opposite of the one mentioned above. I keep making the seams too scant, and then I end up with bigger squares than intended, and nothing lines up when I go to sew the squares together.

It probably didn’t help any that I was trying to sew this block together while hosting a hyperactive child at our house. I ought to have been checking after sewing each seam to make sure everything was measuring up, rather than focusing on someone else’s temper tantrums, but there you have it.

The moral of the story: don’t try to quilt while there is a hyperactive child in the room. Also, keep your seam ripper handy.

The picture below shows this block when I was eight days into it. It was just a few hours after I had come to terms with the fact that I was going to have to rip out some of these seams and start over. I had ripped out part of one seam so I could get to another seam that needed to be redone. I redid the second seam and was still not happy with it, and had ripped it out again, plus completely ripped out the partial seam. I was not in a good mood.

Notice the ruffled edges of failure on many of the pieces. This happens when you have to rip out a seam that is too scant (I suspect it also happens when you rip out a seam that is not scant enough). No matter how carefully you remove the stitching, the fabric never seems to be quite the same again.

Also notice how the seam ripper seems to be giving me the finger. Even inanimate objects are gloating at my lack of skills. Is it any wonder I felt so discouraged that I took five days completely off from working on this block?

After my mini-hiatus I finally felt ready to tackle it again. I took stock, and re-measured everything, discovering that I had three seams to rip and redo, then another two seams to finally finish off this block.

At last, this block is done. I’d originally intended to go on and do three more similar ones, but now I’m not so sure. I’m certainly feeling less confident about them. It might be time for a change of pace.