CHANGE OF DIRECTION

Jeez Louise.  I had started out with a stack of white and black fabrics, gradating from light to dark.  And as I've gone along, I've had to reject and replace a few because I didn't have enough of that particular fabric.

It happened again today, when I started on the fifth row.  I didn't have enough and just went with the next one from the stack.    So, after I made the fifth row with this fabric, I re-assessed and realized that some of the upcoming rows I didn't have enough of the fabric I had picked, so this problem was going to just get worse!  I went through my stash and come to the conclusion that I didn't have the fabric range to do this right.  I've even been thinking it would look better with just one 'white'.

I decided this last one would look great for that.  I had recently bought it at Quilted Strait, so there should be more of it out there somewhere.  But, I need to make sure I can get some more (enough) to finish the project before I commit and do something stupid.

But first, a really nice walk in the park!

Here's how it looked at five rows (soon to be redone).

I erased some of the trees in this painting and lightened the sky.  I'm still not happy with it.  Is it the colors?  I'm beginning to think I hate this palette.  The trees are all the wrong colors!  But, what do I want?

DETERMINED

I sat down determined to finish the last row on the Frolic quilt and get it off the machine.

But...

When I rolled it down, I discovered the top was longer than the back.  OMG!

I've seen video on how to fix this, but jeez, what a pain.

So, I set about fixing it.

I unrolled the finished part and cut off the excess from the sides and sewed a bunch of pieces together to get a 3-1/2" strip.  It's only about an inch short, but just to be sure.

The shortage.

Here it is with the extra strip pinned up underneath.  A good suggestion on the video was to use the clamps as extra hands.

I used my wooden iron to press open the seams.  As you can see, I took about an inch of seam allowance (inadvertantly) on the new strip, which caused it to be just barely long enough.  At first, I thought I might have to rip it out and redo it.  I lucked out.  Lesson learned:  don't skimp on the backing and don't skimp on the repair and watch where you pin it together.