Back to Square One

Good morning, my friends, and welcome to the rest of summer. Summer never really gets off the ground here in the Pacific Northwest until after the Fourth of July. We're in for some hot weather over the next several days. We may turn on our air conditioner for the first time this season. It means I'll have to bundle up to be in the basement.

The past couple of days have been busy. My last task to get ready for our dinner last night was to bake a Lemon Meringue Pie. I've made this pie about half a dozen times, and it always turns out just fine. Still...I worry each time I start one. This one was a winner.

We still have half a pie left over to enjoy for the next couple of nights. 

With everything going on in the kitchen, it was around 3:00 p.m. before I could do any sewing. I considered bagging it for the day, but it seemed as if I could at least get the pieces cut for the half square triangles. As a reminder, I'm making this quilt. I believe I saw this picture on Facebook with the quilt name of "Lightframe."

After posting about it the first time, my friend, Kate, informed me the picture I'd seen was one of those sites that steals patterns from the original designer. She clued me in that the original pattern was called "Summer Camp" and it could be found on the Missouri Star website. Thanks, Kate. Definitely, I don't want to be spreading bad information. In any case, the pattern on the Missouri Star website lists fabric amounts and other dimensions, including the finished block size of 8 inches.

So, I'm trying to figure this out because I'm a cheapskate, and I don't want to buy the pattern. I'd already determined the half square triangles should start at 4-1/2 inches (finishing at 4 inches). From there, I could figure out the rest mathematically. So I went to work cutting pieces to make the half square triangles. Using the two-at-a-time method meant cutting these to 5 inches.

I'm making this quilt one row of blocks at a time, and so I started with six half square triangles, and trimmed them to 4-1/2 inches.

Then I started sewing on the scrappy strips. 

Now, how many times have I told you I'm too old for math. Because I added this all up, and diagrammed it, and looked up the Pythagorean Theorem...just for good measure, you understand. It has nothing to do with quilting, but I was buffing up my math skills. And when I had the blocks this far, I realized I'd figured the width of my strips too narrow. My blocks were going to finish at 7 inches. I could go with that, but it would make my quilt a full six inches narrower and eight inches shorter. 

So I mulled over my options. If I added more blocks, it would throw off the design. I could add more strips, but that would make the quilt a lot bigger. In the end, I decided to remove the strips I'd sewn on and start again at the beginning.

And I had a "duh" moment this morning when I realized this pattern is intended to be made with a jelly roll. The strips should be cut to 2-1/2 inches. I'd already figured out the correct width, but learning it was meant for jelly rolls ahead of time would have saved me some trouble, and I could have avoided doing bad math. Oh well. Live and learn. I'll get this set right today, and it'll be like it never happened. 

So here are my instructions for you: Get yourself one of those flashy things like they had in the movie "Men in Black," and shoot yourself with it so that you forget all about this F-up of mine. When you read tomorrow's post, it'll be a fresh start. No harm done, and nobody has to die.

Okay, so I'm giving myself an easy day. I'm supposed to do one housekeeping chore, but I can put that off until tomorrow. All the watering is done outside, and so I can spend the day sewing. There are leftovers for dinner, and so there's really nothing else on my agenda. I love a day like that, don't you?