Recovering from a mistake!

It was one of those nights! I woke up for no reason and couldn't go back to sleep. As I lay there, I realized I had sent out one piece of information that wasn't correct, and that was it. I had to get up, and I worked for several hours! Then, when I finally woke up, I was exhausted! 

Even though I have some work to do today, I can have a nice long (well, not that long) nap, and all will be good! 

Unless there are last-minute pictures, the two presentations are ready for this morning, and if I can work the photos in, I will. If not - next month!

The other day, I worked on my Tequila Lime paper pieced pattern. And things were going well. The strips were cut perfectly, and the pattern was easy, and well; it was PERFECT. Doesn't that look pretty? Should I mention that I did all EIGHT of the pieces? 

One section of Tequila Lime

Then I did one section for the opposite side and placed the pieces on the wall, and OH NO!!!

One diamond section for Tequila Lime

Do you see what I see? Yep -- the left side is all wrong! Remember, I did eight of those and only one of the other side! Sigh..........................

What to do? That is paper piecing with a 1.5 stitch length, which is a challenge to rip out. What will happen to the newsprint pattern? I left it and went and did something else as the task seemed insurmountable. 

I returned a short while later as I needed to have ONE good one for the class on Saturday morning. So I got out the seam ripper and carefully ripped all the fabric pieces off. Yep - I had to rip ALL the pieces off, as the colored fabrics were in reverse order. 

Unripping paper piecing

I was listening to the audiobook, so it wasn't a big deal, and within 20 minutes, the piece was back together correctly. I had to recut ONE strip of background fabric, and the size of the remaining pieces was good; I just needed to switch their positions. A rookie mistake! That happens when you are not paying attention, and I have a HUGE note in my presentation that says, MAKE ONE of each to check before you go into production mode. 

This is what it's supposed to look like, which is a little more symmetrical!! 

What the diamond is supposed to look like

Then I got brave enough to trim it, and now these components are ready to sew together, but not this month. 

The three pieces are ready to sew together

I was able to completely redo four of the units last night, and the remaining four are ripped out!! The paper only fell apart in a few places, so a few strategic pieces of tape are holding them together. All is well, and I should be able to resew them today. Then, I'll be able to finish the remaining seven pieces for the other side! 

The last four pieces are ripped apart

I have to say that it wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. Yes - it put me behind a bit. Yes - it was a total annoyance that I repeated the mistake EIGHT times. But -- it's fabric. It's a quilt. I left it immediately upon realizing what happened. I returned with a better frame of mind and set to work. It was NO BIG deal and was easy to recover from. Mistakes are humbling, and I ate a lot of humble pie this weekend. 

I also ate some humble pie last weekend with this same quilt. I was sewing my curves into the bottom of the diamond, which was a pretty simple seam to sew. Then I put it on the design wall and GASPED! OH -- there's a pattern I was supposed to follow, and I did NOT. I seem to have an issue with this quilt. 

Luckily, when we placed it on the wall, Helen Anne quickly spotted a "new" pattern, which required moving only two pieces. 

Two of the curved pieces had to be swapped

So, the right-hand curved piece of two diamonds was swapped. And this is what my center looks like. After our show and tell yesterday, I think EVERYONE did it one of two ways. My carelessness added a third! But who will know? 

The center of my Tequila Lime

This had better be the LAST mistake I make with this quilt. If I haven't learned by now, well, I'm not as bright as I think I am! Check fabric placement before sewing; make one section and check. Then go for it! 

Am I mad? Nope - I was never mad because of those two mistakes. Just figure out the most efficient way to fix them and move on! Getting mad NEVER accomplishes a thing. I had a dream about that. I was on a Zoom call ( a random one), and I was getting angry and shouting at the group because of something. No idea - it doesn't matter. I was going to shut the call down because I was so mad. But I couldn't see clearly enough to do that. 

The lesson learned here? Stay calm! You'll always see clearly, you'll always be in control, and that's how I recovered so gracefully and quickly from these errors. 

As I mentioned yesterday, I have many more paper-pieced patterns to sew, and I'm enjoying the process despite what happened. I'm tempted to pull another one out, but I said, "NO, you do NOT need to overload the schedule." Everything is excellent at the moment. My schedule is very manageable, I have time to recover gracefully from a mistake without panicking, homework and follow-ups are pretty much up-to-date (I still owe the follow-up for applique), and I'm almost up-to-date with customer quilts. I do not need to rock the boat and add another project! 

That's it for today -- it's almost time to walk the girls and the boy. 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!