One Monthly Goal :: May 2017 Update

It's the last day of May and I'm calling it. Not only did I not complete my goal, but for the first time since I started quilting, four years and 82 quilts ago, I'm pitching the whole thing and starting over...later.

The inspiration for this quilt came from the awesome original sold by MidwestThreadsOhio on Etsy.

She doesn't offer a pattern, so I reverse engineered my take of the quilt on EQ7. Obviously, I borrowed much of my design from the original. I did make changes to the eyes, hands, mouth, and raised foot.

I've been working on this quilt in between other projects because I don't have an intended recipient for it at this point. I was nearly done piecing the blocks when I made it my May One Monthly Goal, but three things got in the way of me finishing.

One. I broke my foot. Ouch. That is all. I'm back in a boot for the second summer.

Two. On the 4th of May, I learned that our son's librarian was retiring, so I dropped everything to make a bookcase quilt for her. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Especially since I made it in only seventeen days!

Three. There comes a time when you realize that it would take less time to start over than it would be to fix all the things you want to change. In hindsight, I should have realized this when I made the very first block and realized that I bought the wrong interfacing at Joann. The cashier pulled out the wrong bolt, but I should have double checked. I realized my mistake when I got home and make the first block. But then, since I bought the whole bolt and didn't want to waste it, I decided to go ahead and try to use it. Verdict: it's definitely too thick!

When using interfacing to make a pixelated or postage stamp quilt, use Pellon 44F JAS. Do NOT use  Pellon 950F. If you aren't familiar with this method of quilting, check out Oh Fransson's tutorial.

I started laying out my pieces using Pellon Tru-Grid. You can see a little bit of it on the edge here. (By the way, it's my helper adorable?!)

As it turned out, the Tru-Grid does not hold up well to ironing, so I switched to the piece of cardboard I've used with previous pixelated quilts.

The problem with this is that my blocks ended up being different sizes--up to an inch! Grrrrrr.....

Before I noticed the size differences, I was already unhappy with the value difference in the lower hand and the raised leg was a hot mess.

So in addition to wanting to redo the hand and feet blocks, I also had to redo a few individual blocks because my iron threw up on them. That has also never happened before! I was still planning to rework all these things when I noticed the size discrepancy, as I cut my finger and bled all over another block! (I'll spare you that photo! This is the iron puke.)

See? Clearly, this version of the quilt did not want to be made. So for the first time ever, I am chucking the whole thing! I still want to make it, but I'm starting over. I have the correct interfacing and I made a couple more tweaks to the pattern so hopefully it will come together much better on take two.

Before I say goodbye to Brutus for now, here are a few photos of what might have been...

Such promise.

Child labor.

And back to the drawing board.

Linked to:

May OMG Finish link up @ Elm Street Quilts