pinwheel problems

making pinwheels for my "groovy liberty" quilt, the newest liberty + chambray chapel lap quilt. i tried three iterations of this fabric combination, switching pieces in and out until i figured out which one i actually liked. you can't always tell how the fabrics will look together in the block until you try them.

the first combo up there on the left felt unbalanced because the two colorful prints on the right blended together once sewn in the block, leaving the other two to look like christmas on the other side.

i switched out the larger-scaled print for a yellow june's meadow. this brought more contrast and color to the block, which i liked. but something was still off. maybe because there were now three prints with a similar smaller scale. i was mising that big, bold print.

so i swapped that out for the smaller scaled floral. and that’s where i stayed. this block feels fun and balanced, too. 

first problem solved.

  

i started sewing together block pieces from the first fabrics i cut from scraps before i did my maths for the quilt and knew how many i needed for each fabric. not a great idea if i do more than a handful. i had a lot of this mitsi print in hot pink and sewed them all up, only to discover later i had done too many. 

time to unpick.

as i was counting how many i'd made, i found that these two blocks had the chambray flipped. the difference between wrong and right sides of the chambray are harder to see in this photo, but they are noticeable in person. well, i already had to unpick some anyway. this made the choice which to unpick easier.

this one is hard to tell in the photo, but it's mitsi that's flipped wrong side out this time. 

another unpick.

now can you tell what i did? the two bolder, high-value prints (on left) are supposed to be opposite each other. there are a lot of blocks in this quilt and this small switch might not be noticeable in one block. but it feels off to me when i had them balanced the way i like already. 

unpick.

i’m putting my cute bohin rabbit/hare snips to good use. i don't use an official seam ripper. i find the tips of my snips fit in the stitches well enough, so i use those. one less tool to have around, store, and find. i like that they multitask this way. in fact, i probably use my snips for unpicking more than for anything else.

by this point in my sewing time i wasn't even batting an eye when i had to unpick about one in four seams. i just wanted to get the blocks right. it made me think of repentance. i used to hate the idea of repentance as much as i did unpicking. they're the same, in a way. repentance used to feel like being forced to apologize. now i see it as an opportunity to self-correct and start over. no big deal. 

same with the unpicking. once apon a time, when i had to fight hard for any sewing time, having to unpick felt like the worst thing i could be wasting my time doing. it felt like a big setback, a lost opportunity. now i look at the need for unpicking as the way to get my quilt how i want it. sometimes i need some course correction and thank goodness i can do that! both in my life and in my sewing.

in the end, i got my set of pinwheels complete. somehow i didn't get the fabrics set exactly the same in all of them, but this is a minor "mistake" unworthy of unpicking. not everything needs correcting, after all. 

i have five more sets of pinwheels to make. i've sorted the fabrics i pulled into sets, but i'm still waiting on the last couple i ordered to arrive. hopefully the rest go quickly enough, with minimal mistakes. 

but if i do need to unpick, i'll get snipping. because i can and i will.

i've shared an inordinate amount of mistakes lately. do any of you other quilters feel like i'm just a hot mess or is this typical for you, too? it does seem i've made more than my normal share, but i can't tell for sure. either way, i'm just going to keep on keeping on.

i make a lot of mistakes, but i also make quilts in the end.