Life's Lessons Continue

Learning lessons the hard way does not mean I did it wrong - right? I think I would rather say "well I won't do it that way ever, ever again". And learning valuable lessons is a good thing - right? If that's true, I must be really, really good right now. There's just one itsy, bitsy problem - I learned what I did wrong, but I didn't learn a better way to do it.

I sewed all my strips together just like Barbara at bslartquilts.blogspot.com said and then I cut them all apart in various widths to reassemble and sew back together. (Ok so far!) When I sewed the seams to reassemble all my newly cut strips, all my original seams were coming apart. (Not ok at this point!) After reinforcing (resewing) all those little horizontal seams (mutter, mutter, mutter) I was able to sew the new seams reassembling in an entirely new look. (Not ok at this point either!) That is when I realized that I should have used the 'sew as you go' method and sew my long, varied-width strips onto a muslin backing to support and reinforcement. It is very difficult to sew long strips together without that extra support.

Now, I realize the rest of you have already figured this out and are sitting there shaking your heads at me. The only thing I have to say is - "I won't do it that way again." Meanwhile, you can all feel free to comment and tell me everything I did that was wrong. (Oh by the way, I do like the way it turned out - just not the process of getting there.) Today will be sandwiching, quilting and binding. (Ambitious aren't I.) I'm hoping to be able to post it to Hummingbird Treasures tomorrow.

Hugs to all of you who are sharing my life's adventures (and the lessons learned - but do they always have to be learned the hard way?) You are a very special part of my life.

Marie