On Ringo Lake, Rapid Fire Part 8 - A Distant Shore

The Rapid Fire series continues. Another day, another clue. I have seriously fallen behind now, but I'm going to try to do a little bit of this clue. Link to it here: On Ringo Lake

Today's clue puts the units from Part 1, Part 6, and Part 7 together to form a block. This is a significant clue! As soon as I saw it I realized that I was going to need at least 6 different salmon fabrics for the triangles in Part 7. Otherwise, my blocks will be too similar. The salmon really stands out because the triangles are comparatively large.

At this point my only Part 6 units are made from two different salmon fabrics, and I am out of other salmon fabrics. I am going to have to go shopping. I won't be able to go for a few days, but the roads should be better by then.

Several days later . . . 

I got some more salmon fabrics.

I didn't have time to work on this quilt for a few days after that, but I finally found a little time to cut out some Part 6 triangles from the new fabrics. I recalled that the size was a little different from what I was used to, so I looked over the instructions to refresh my memory.

Unfortunately, I cut the pieces an inch too small and I didn't realize it until I had cut many strips, squares, and triangles. I have wasted all that fabric and I probably will need to make another trip to the fabric store, but I do have enough right now to cut several more triangles.

My Scraps of Shame

What happened? I lost focus and I picked up the wrong ruler and started using it. I think I would have been okay if I had grabbed my wide ruler. I don't want to give away the actual measurements because Bonnie Hunter has asked us not to, so this will be intentionally vague and I won't show photos of the rulers or how I measured.

Also, my brain didn't immediately notice that my strips/squares/triangles were too small because I had not worked on Part 6 for at least 10 days and all the pieces were on another table and I didn't look at them. Ruler stickers probably would have helped avoid this mistake because they might have reminded me where to measure.

It was very time-consuming to make the two blocks pictured here. Issues:

• Some of my flying geese units were not square and I did not realize it until I had sewn them into a row. It would be helpful to check them earlier in the process.
• I laid out the blocks before sewing them to make sure there would be sufficient variety in each block. This made me a little nervous about chain-piecing the units and rows because I didn't want to get my layouts all jumbled up. Does anyone out there have a good method for keeping it all straight while chain-piecing?

I do like the finished blocks quite a bit, and I have learned quite a bit so far, so all's well that ends well.

Lessons Learned:

• Measure, check the directions, measure, check the ruler, then cut out two or three pieces and make test units before you cut all of the pieces.
• If it has been more than a few days since you last worked on your project, repeat the previous step, even if you have already made several of the same unit.
• Time to treat yourself to some ruler stickers.
• Try not to use a ruler with orange tick marks when measuring salmon fabric.