It is often the little things that catch the eye and spoil the view or enhance interest. That happened to my quilt this week. The main focus is a complicated design in an on-point square. In the middle of each side is a triangle that suggests a hidden square behind the on-point square. You have seen lots of quilts like that...right? At the last minute I was looking at the graphic of my design on Illustrator and realized that two lines were "off." See below in the magenta circle how the turquoise border and the turquoise, pointy piece inside the red border look mismatched. Intellectually they should be fine as they are unrelated design elements, but my eye was offended. According to my brain the lines should line up, but they were about 1/2 inch off.
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| Graphic showing the disconnect! |
My first attempt at righting the wrong, was to take the turquoise border off the side triangle. Then I
inserted a 1/2 inch orange border and put the turquoise outside of it. Now it is at least the right size.
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| Narrow orange border inserted. |
Next I reapplied the triangle so the turquoise border to lined up the way I wanted it. Now, that is better, but I am still not happy. The line is OK, but it looks like an animal took a bite out of a presumed connection. Hmmmmm!
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| Turquoise lined up. |
How about putting a tiny, turquoise triangle in there?
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| Cut piece of turquoise set on top for testing my idea. |
That little piece of turquoise fills up the barren territory and makes it look like the border (upper turquoise) travels under the red border to become part of the main design. I don't know if anyone will ever notice it, but it is the kind of quirky idea that tickles my fancy.
TIP: Take time to look at your work critically as you move along. Fixing something in the early stages is much easier that having to go back later.
After a couple of hours I have now carefully ripped a few stitches and inserted four little pieces to my satisfaction. For the final two sides I will first insert those little triangles before stitching it all together. Glad I caught it when I did.
Sew some happy seams this week. I wish you no mismatches to contemplate.
I do admire your persistence. The result is probably better than you could have imagined. I'm not a perfectionist with HST seams, but this would be a challenge that does not let me rest either. You have a good instinct for design, Mardi.
ReplyDeleteIt is a bit of a bump in the road, but bumps are wake-up calls. I am glad I took the time to redo this. It hasn't been too time-consuming and is worth every minute.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing the completed top, loving it so far.
ReplyDeleteIt took me more than one look to see what you were talking about, but, when I finally saw it I thought your fix was perfect. Good call and certainly a reminder that when it doesn't look right just stop and figure out how I want it to look. Thanks for the share.
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