Fudging It

 I know I'm not the only one who does some fudging while quilting. It may be easing in a block that's a smidge too big, or swapping thread colors in the middle of FMQ because you were sure you had enough of that color, but you didn't. 

This weeks round of fudging was a bit different. 

I knew I was cutting it close on whether this piece of fleece was large enough for the back of this quilt. Turns out it wasn't quite large enough, and when I basted it I had the top a little crooked compared to the back, so it accentuated the problem on opposite corners. I had hoped the 1/2" binding I normally use would cover any selvage that showed, but since I went crooked, that wasn't going to work. The worst sections were still under an inch of selvage showing, but 1/2" wasn't enough. I had no more of this fleece, that's why I cut it so close to begin with. I have other red fleece, but it's not the same color, nor quite the same weight, and honestly, I just didn't want to piece another bit of fleece on and have a thick seam right near the binding. 

What would you have done? I opted for 1" binding, even knowing I hadn't put a border on the quilt, so it would cover up some of the piecing. 

Here's that same section after I machine sewed the binding on. No selvage showing, but what about the front?

Even with 1" binding, I feel like there is enough color around the edges that the blocks look fine. Someone with a higher perfection quotient than I have may not agree, and that's OK. 

When I am trying to decide whether to genuinely fix something on a quilt, or whether to fudge it, I take several things into account. 

1) What stage am I at? 

If I put in a unit oriented incorrectly, and I'm at block stage, I'm going to get out the seam ripper and fix it every time. 

If I've got the top together, and I notice a mistake, I ask myself a few more questions before I decide. Where in the top is the mistake? If it's at the edge and easily fixable, I'll fix it. If it's in the center and will be a pain to fix, I try to decide how noticeable the mistake is. Most of the time, I will fix it at this point, unless it's simply not that noticeable. I've learned you don't have to disassemble the whole quilt to fix one section. 

Once the quilt is basted, then it has to be a pretty big deal for me to fix it. If I basted in a fold, that I'll fix, but if one four patch is oriented incorrectly??? If it's a small quilt I might fix it, but a freshly basted king sized quilt??? It depends on several things. The rest of the questions apply to a quilt I am currently quilting as well. The further I am along in the process, the more likely I am to fudge something instead of redoing it. 

2) Does my mistake affect the structural integrity of the quilt? If I have a seam coming open, I'll be fixing that. If I notice a hole in a piece of fabric, I will either replace the piece, or applique another piece over the top of the damaged piece. If my backing was short and I have batting showing, I'll be adding onto the backing. In the quilt above, the selvage covered the batting just fine, there was no structural issue. It was just an aesthetic issue. 

3) What is the purpose of the quilt? I don't enter quilt shows so that's a never a consideration. I do, however, give a lot of quilts as gifts. If it's a baby quilt and not that noticeable, babies don't care and I'm not as likely to fix it. A wedding quilt for someone's bed? That will tilt me towards fixing it correctly. I once sewed pieced borders onto a quilt incorrectly TWICE in a row! I took them off, and fixed it, because the pieced borders finished the design in the center of the quilt. I do have some exceptions to fixing mistakes in important quilts. I don't know how many times I've noticed while quilting WOW fabrics that I put in the fabric upside down. I figure if I couldn't tell it was upside down while I was piecing and pressing, the new owner will likely never notice. The quilt above is a scrap utility type quilt. Whoever end up with it will likely use it while watching tv, they'll spill snacks on it, their pets will be all over it, yeah, using wider binding is not something I'm going to lose any sleep over for that quilt. 

I'm always quite up front about my "Finished Is Better Than Perfect" attitude. If I had decided that this quilt had to be correctly repaired, when I didn't realize the backing was crooked until after I was largely finished the quilting, chances are, this quilt would never have been finished. I didn't have any more of the backing fleece, there was no way I would have ripped out all the quilting, so I would have stuck it in the back of a closet somewhere, unfinished, until someday I either tossed it or finally decided wide binding wasn't a shameful thing after all. I feel better knowing it's finished now, instead of being on a to do list and taking up head space for ages.

 Now I'll tell you what went right with this quilt! It was my first time doing walking foot quilting on my M7, and it went great! The M7 has an even feed system that you can engage, and after I figured out how to do that, it was fantastic! I decided to do a simple 60 degree crosshatch on this quilt. 

I had that fleece backing, and a mid loft poly batting, I had NO puckers or gathering, even when crossing previous quilting lines. 

I like crosshatching a quilt occasionally. It always looks nice, I only have to mark the first diagonal line in each direction (which I use painter's tape to mark) and I just use the guide on the foot to sew all the other lines. 

In this photo you can see the quilting better. When I first started quilting anything besides SITD, this was my go to quilting design. It's a classic look, and easy for beginners. Walking foot quilting is something I've been more interested in lately too, because when my arm is sore, it's easier for me to use a walking foot and not stress my arm as much. 

Per usual, I have several other projects going on.

These are some of the first blocks for my BIL's quilt made from my late sister's clothes. The inner squares are from her shirts, the frames around those from her pants. I have about 1/4 of the blocks made for his quilt. 

I cut out the baby quilt I've been needing to work on. I've got the giraffe necks and legs pieced, now to work on the heads and bodies. 

In my ongoing effort to simply my scrap system, I pulled out all the 4.5" and 6.5" squares I had that were not novelty fabrics, and I'm cutting them down into 2" squares. I routinely use 4.5" and 6.5" squares in I Spy quilts, but I realized I wasn't really using anything but the novelty squares in those sizes.   I have several patterns using smaller squares I piece on a regular basis, so I think my focus is going to be on 2" and 2.5" squares for scrap cutting for a while. I decided on 2" squares for these because then I only have 1/2" waste from each larger square. 

Now that the only size of flannel scraps I'm keeping is 4.5" squares, I think I'll use those more effectively, and I can put them in the drawer I had been keeping the regular quilting cotton 4.5" squares. I've been cutting burp rags recently, and throwing away any scrap I can't get a 4.5" square out of is both freeing and terrifying. I am so used to trying to use every bit of fabric, that it feels weird to toss it, but at the same time, I know I'm not likely to use it any time soon either, so it's just taking up space. I don't use flannel in string quilts or crumb blocks, and I've been giving all my crumbs to my craft loving sister anyway. I don't think she'd use crumbs of flannel either, so I'm trying to get used to my new simplified scraps, which I'm hoping will take up far less space! I have lots of fabric, and although I love my scraps, and making scrap quilts, I'm not going to live forever, so it's good time to refresh my thinking about what I actually use.