I should have paid more attention in math class

via Hijiri Shepherd

Now that I'm back at work, I'm trying to practice this "live what you love" motto. For me that means finding time to still quilt and blog and do the "me" things that make me a sane mommy and wife.

So in the spirit of that motto, I've been working on a quilt to hang in my office. Nothing like a constant reminder of your hobby to keep your priorities in check, right?

I decided to make this quilt from Boo Davis' book "Dare to Be Square Quilting" in sky blue, lime green, orange and sunny yellow.

Lovely, isn't it?  Unfortunately, the finished size was a bit too big for the spot I had in mind so I had to resize the measurements for the block pieces. And here's where I always get into trouble. Math.

Instead of scaling the block pieces proportionally (like anyone else would know to do), I lopped a half inch off of each measurement (i.e. 10.5 x 2.5 became 10 x 2) and then proceeded to cut out 304 pieces all the wrong proportion. I was so mad at myself. I seem to make a mistake of this proportion every time I set out to do a new quilt pattern. I blame the fatigue and my lack of interest in math.

Refusing to waste all those cut out rectangles and squares, I started experimenting. I first made these log cabin blocks but didn't like the symmetry of them.

So then I made some wonkier blocks. Lots of them.  Enough for a large wall hanging. But I didn't like how they all looked together.  So I took four of the misfit blocks that I did like and made a smaller wall hanging for another part of my office.

 

This was my first attempt at straight-line quilting like this. It reaffirmed my suspicion that my walking foot is not working correctly, as I had terrible shifting of the fabric. Good thing it's just a wall hanging and no one will see the backing.

As for the larger quilt for my office, I finally did land on a pattern that I like and that will allow me to use some of the originally cut fabric pieces. More on that later.