More good lessons

Finally had a chance to work on my first quilt design project today, and it was definitely a good lesson. I took the cutting instructions straight from Quilt Design Wizard. I'm not sure if it was my sewing or what, but the border pieces are barely fitting. I'm ending up "easing" the border piece onto the main piece. I've had to unpick and redo 2 seams so far. Once I was as much as a half inch off on the length. How did that happen?!

It's weird because after the first unpicking, I went back and measured and everything seemed to be the right length. I guess the seams or the thread is tweaking the borders to shrink a bit. I think next time I will cut each one at least 1/8th longer. Better to have to trim the seam than to come up short. Part of the ease problem is that the edges get off-track and then I have to redo a section where I missed one of the edges: oops. I can only imagine how frustrated I'd be if I were following directions. Good to know if I turn this into a pattern.

A lot of firsts

I've finished the main blocks of my very first paper piecing project and my very first quilt design. Some things I'm learning: it's still possible to not have everything not match up even when sewing on the lines of a foundation piece. It's also important to watch where the seams end up. I had a place where I sewed over a seam going the wrong way. But mostly it was easy to do and came together nicely. Still have the 3 rows of borders to do. I'm still trying to figure out how to do the corner blocks, but it will make more sense when I get down to it. Haven't had a chance to sew this week while I worked on a freelance gig for money (yes, paid projects take precedence over hobbies...)