Answering a call for help
I recently had the great pleasure of staying with an old friend who I had not seen for over 20 years. (lets hear it for Facebook!) Whilst I was with her she handed me a box with various bits of fabric in it, in various shapes and sizes and told me that it was a quilt she started a few years ago and that she was totally lost and could I help.
After about an hour of reading through the pattern and trying to match her fabric choices to the pattern I sort of got to the heads and tails of the quilt. Explaining what needed to be done did not go so well though and my friend asked if I would complete the quilt top.
This is the box of goodies that I started with. I do love a challenge.
There were a couple of problems and I had to make a few assumptions and hoped that my friend would be happy with my decisions, or example, I had to decide which fabrics would go into the design. The fabric was from a jelly roll and as with many of these patterns there are more strips than you really need. The main problem was that my friend had already sewn some of the little blocks. They do say you should always start and finish a quilt on the same machine. (and probably the same person) this is because one persons 1/4 inch seam allowance will always be different to another persons.
The pattern involved a lot of 2 1/2 inch squares and when there is a slight difference in the stitching the end result will compound so a 16th of an inch added up along the way means a fault of half an inch in just a few blocks. As I was adding blocks I had sewn to blocks my friend had sewn this meant than not all intersections were perfect. (I am not trying to make an excuse for shoddy work honestly!!!)
Small errors are fine in most quilt tops and unless you looked really closely you could not notice these small errors. Our eyes always tend to finish a line so if you are not totally 'on point' it really is not a great problem.
The finished top looks great and the small faults does not detract from the overall pattern. I am popping it in the post today so that my friend can back it and quilt it. When done I will add a photo of the finished item.
If you ever need help with a quilt, that has been stuck in a cupboard and would like me to help you get back on track or even finish it for you then let me know.
email - alexoharasquilts@gmail.com