I needed a do-over

This is the story of the quilt I re-made on Saturday.  The pattern is Josephine's Knot and I didn't like any of the sizes offered, so I decided to change the dimensions.  Piece of cake, right?  Not!  But, I learned a lesson, so it's not a waste and it really wasn't that much work to re-do it.  If I had to re-make a quilt, this was the one to do.

When I made the quilt the first time, I wanted to change the length and the width, but not by the same amount.  I didn't think that through very well and I ended up increasing both dimensions by the larger of the two proportional increases.  I can't remember exactly what I did, but I ended up cutting a whole quilt using 7/8 inch measurements on the ruler.  The width came out perfect.  But, the length looked like it had been grabbed by both ends and stretched out of proportion. 

I don't make many quilts with this much of a "modern" feel.  The white/grey/black combination with the green flowery background was very different for me.  Another expansion of my horizons.  I designed the quilt with these fabrics and stuck with the palette, unlike so many quilts where I use or add what I have and use a lot of different fabrics.  I bought all the fabric on one shopping trip with a gift certificate.  I looked forward to it for a couple years before I made it.  So, I was really disappointed that it didn't come out exactly like I wanted it to. 

I don't know if you can see the difference in this photo because of the perspective, but this is the before.  I took this picture this way on purpose so I could talk about the quilt on the blog without showing the full extent of the mistake.  I didn't take one full on that would have shown how "off" it looked.  Too bad.   

Anyway, all I had to do was take the borders off.  After that, it's a row quilt.  And, I sewed the rows with a 1 3/8" seam allowance and after I had them all sewn and was sure I liked it, I trimmed 7/8" off of that, leaving me with a traditional 1/4" seam allowance.  And, the quilt came out the perfect length.  I took about a foot off the length of the quilt.  And, because I CANNOT follow a pattern, I cut what used to be the black inner border to the dimensions of the rows and added another green border before the outer border.  It gave it one more layer of box in a box.  And, it made me feel like I'd added my own twist to the pattern. 

As if changing the dimensions wasn't enough of a twist for me. 

Anyway, now it's ready to quilt and I've ordered the thread, so you should expect to see this one on the Bernina in the not too distant future.  Two bad I can't quilt with two machines at once.  You know, like those people that can write two different poems at the same time.  Imagine what all I could get done then! 

Everybody have a great Thursday.  Work is busy, so the days pass fast.  But, it's already hot as the devil's whistling teakettle down here and I'm having trouble wanting to do anything except sit very still, in a cool, dry place. 

Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way. 

Lane