Perfection is Overrated

I dropped by the Guild BOM table last month and up picked my fabric and templates for the upcoming monthly block. This year the program offers two choices... an easier block and a more challenging block. Well... I guess I will choose the more challenging block since I am relatively confident in my piecing skills. After all I had been staring at the thing for weeks while working on the newsletter. I liked the design much better anyway. The instructions looked OK. Cut out the pieces using only two templates and some rotary cutting pieces too. The instructions indicated there were some partial seams but I think I can handle that. So on Sunday I decided to get everything out and complete the block because the Guild meeting was the next night and it would be nice to turn it in early.

I get out the cutting instructions and confidently begin cutting the pieces out the piece of fabric I was given by our BOM girls LB and BP. Whoops... what happened... I don't have anywhere near the amount of fabric that I need. (Of course, if I had bothered to lay out the pieces before hand to make sure before actually opening the rotary cutter I may have been OK) Oh well... tomorrow night is the Guild meeting and a quick call to LB I knew there would be another piece of fabric available to pick up on the next day.
On Tuesday (because Monday was a late night out with the ladies) I started again on the BOM. I got all the pieces cut out (of course because I now had twice as much fabric as everyone else) and started laying them out on the table.

With the layout complete, I begin reading the piecing instructions. Step one... check... step two... check... step three... check. Step 4... uh.. wait a minute... there is a step missing. I get it... that's what LB was talking about. She mentioned something about challenging everyone to figure out how to put it together. Ok... I take another look at the block. I start to get tickled with myself. I am figuring it out. I finally get to the last step and the seams are going together perfectly. This block is great. I am great...

Until I turn it over to press it. The good news is the block measures a perfect 12 1/2 inches square and has wonderful seam allowances. The Bad News... the center looks like someone stuffing a pillow. I have no idea what happened. Why won't the center lay flat. It's almost as if the center square is waaay tooo big. I tried to fix the thing but it got worse.

SOOOO.... I did what any self-respecting quilter would have done...

I IRONED IT! I didn't lightly press it. I IRONED IT WITH LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF STARCH! I showed that cotton who was boss and I made that block lay down. Afterwards I was a little embarrased. I mean it does mean that I simply gave up. Maybe I shouldn't turn it in. I will throw it in a drawer somewhere never to be seen again. Well... Ok I will turn it in but I won't put my name on it and admit to this shoddy workmanship. What a minute! Who said I was perfect. Afterall, I am only human. Sometimes I make mistakes. Sometimes we do the best we can and live with it. I wrote my name on the back of that block and put it in my Guild basket for next Monday night. I will walk that block proudly up the BOM table and hand it over to my friends and colleagues with my head held high. I did my best. I gave it the old college try and it's good enough.

And then I will peek over and see what everyone else turned in (you know you would too). Who knows... maybe I will even cross my fingers and hope I win them. But... if I don't win enough blocks to make a whole quilt... that sucker's gonna be a wallhanging or a table runner 'cause I'm not making another one of those!

Happy Quilting!