Measure, rip, fix, measure - done

Recently my niece Shell said that I was an amazing quilter and asked me questions to help her along. My other niece, Sarah, emailed me from Japan and asked me about a book to help her with her skills. Well, I am humbled that they think my sewing and quilting skills are good enough to help them along.

So, I wanted to share what I had to do today as I was working on my $5 quilt project. I need to put the floating border on each block and found that two of them are not the right size. So, me and Mr. Ripper became buddies as I had to take them apart. I thought you might want to see the process I had to go through.
This is one of two blocks, the same pattern but different colors - that are not 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch square.

Here is my first block, taken apart.

A little blurry but you can see the threads sticking out of the sides showing that I really did take it apart. :-)

All the pieces are laying there, ready to be pressed and then put back together. Another thing I made sure of is that my seam allowance - scant quarter inch - was what it was supposed to be. Since it was too small, I had to move my needle to make sure that the seams were correct. I am so happy that I have that option on my machine.

As I sewed each section, I remeasured each time so that it was 8 1/2 inches wide by the depth that it needed to be - in this case 6 1/2 inches.

This is the second block and if you look closely at this and the next picture, you will see that it is off by almost a quarter of an inch in places. Doesn't seem like much, but let me tell you - it will throw the rest of the measurements off and you will have to rip later. Better to adjust when smaller than try and fix later.

I didn't have to take all of the second block apart, once I measured I found that parts of it were ok.

Here is the second block back together. Measuring it again - did I mention that before?? - shows that it is just about on the mark - enough that I can fudge the seam on the next part to be sewed.

Finished blocks. Now I will be able to go to the next step of putting on the floating border.

So, my suggestion is: measure and if not what it is supposed to be - become like a frog and rip-it; rip-it; rip-it. You will be glad that you did it then instead of later.