Market Day - Encountering Trouble

One thing that rather annoys me is the overwhelming urge to point out mistakes when we show our quilts to others. We ought to let the beautiful work speak for itself; a finished quilt is an impressive accomplishment. But, it seems to be our tendency to show everyone the mistakes. Yes, even veteran seamstresses and quilters find themselves picking out stitches, correcting mistakes, and erasing evidence of miscues. "Get the ripper!"

I was just zipping along with the units to make my two little Market Basket quilts. I finished them and felt so proud. Then I saw the mistakes. Below is the smaller of the two quilts, but the large one had similar errors.

I've overlayed some arrows so that I can make referencing easier to manage. It is interesting to note that all the errors in both quilts involve HST units. Those darn things are so easy to get turned around or mixed up.

The pink arrow is pointing out the most obvious error. I turned the HST the wrong direction. This was immediately evident, and believe it or not, I made the exact same mistake in the larger version.

The mistakes involving the blue and yellow arrows are not as evident, and actually, I considered leaving them alone. The two blocks at the yellow arrows are made with a darker neutral; the two blocks at the blue arrows are made with a lighter neutral. These need to be switched around. All the light neutrals are supposed to be surrounding the center star. Would anyone really have noticed it? Probably not. But I would have noticed, and after looking at it for about a day, I decided I might as well get it right.

I picked out the mistakes while watching TV last evening; below are the very sorry looking quilt tops.

Large version

Small version

Just now I have finished the fixes. At last, the big reveal. Borders coming soon.

Center of large version; 21 inches square

Center of small version; 11 inches square

I asked DH help me figure the number of pieces in the quilts; can you believe 246? Whoa. That many pieces in an 11-inch block and in a 21-inch block; I'm glad we didn't figure that out beforehand. I may never have started them!

So now to borders. I have them selected for the small one, but have yet to find exactly the right thing for the large one. (Shopping the stash, you know.)

Happy Quilting, Friends!