100 Blocks, 1 Million Tears

Sometimes being a newbie in this quilty world is a challenge. Most of the posts I see on blogs, Instagram, Facebook look nearly perfect all the time. Beautifully pressed fabric, perfect fabric selections and combinations, and professional looking pictures. It is hard not to compare what is happening in my sewing room to what I see others create. And in my sewing room it is definitely not perfection. I'm still learning. Try, fail, try, fail, try, fail. It is okay with me, but sometimes I do feel discouraged.

Today's example involves sewing 6.5" strips onto the edges of my 100 Days 100 Blocks Tula Pink City Sampler. Easy, right? Not for this gal. You would think making 100 6.5" blocks in 100 days would be the hard part. Nope, not for me. The boarder sashing really is giving me a run for my money.

Being that it is New Year's Eve, I'm going to try and keep my glass half full. Despite my frustration, mistakes always provide lessons!!! My sashing was bunching. A little google search informed me that I needed measure the sashing to the exact length of the quilt, pin, and then sew (not just sew a big strip with the intent of cutting off the excess like I did at first). I wanted to do this right so I removed all four boarders to start again. Try #1 with an exactly measured and pinned sashing piece was another fail. I sewed on the block side vs. the sashing side and I guess the seams stretched and the sashing ended up too short. Try #2 used a lot of pins and sewed on the sash side vs. the block side. Still not as perfect as I would like but I think it will do!!! 

And what do you know, they are all on now and it looks pretty darn good. My goal for New Year's Day is to baste it so I can start quilting on Monday. The 100 Blocks Finished deadline will be here soon. Happy New Year!!!