Starting off on the Wrong Foot - Good Fortune, Part 3

This week's pieces are hard. You can link to Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Link-up here to see what the pieces are and how others have interpreted them. 

I sewed a few pieces and measured, as suggested. They seemed to be the correct size, so I began cutting like crazy. When I had cut some strips from each green fabric, I stopped and cut some neutral squares. This phase went quickly.

The next step, using the Bonus Buddy technique, involved marking two lines on the back of each neutral piece. The fabric kept sliding around on the table, so I grabbed a newspaper and put it under the fabric. This turned out to be a mistake because the newspaper ink sometimes came off on the fabric when I applied pressure to draw a line. It probably would have worked better to use my cutting mat, but I didn't want to get marks all over the mat. I'm going to try the mat, though.

I have a variety of marking tools. I tried a grey pencil, a dark blue pencil, and a pink merking pen. They all claim to be "washout" pens or pencils. I won't know until the quilt is all finished and I can throw it in the wash. (Maybe I can do a few test pieces right away. I still have to pre-wash my orange fabric, so I can throw it in with load.)

I wasn't sure how to pin the squares to the green strips. I could pin along the edges, or I could pin along the diagonal lines. For my first batch, I pinned along the edges. This probably wasn't the best choice. I ended up with corners that were not in the correct spot.

Changing my pinning method helped a lot but did not completely eliminate this problem.

I was having a lot of trouble sewing next to the pencil line per Bonnie Hunter's instructions. In my defense, I had a friend over, She brought her two daughters, who are learning to sew. There was a lot of talking going on. I might have been doing some of the talking. It was kind of distracting.

After sewing a number of pieces and thinking that it was very hard to see the line I was sewing next to, it dawned on me that I was using the wrong foot. I was using my quilting foot (1/4" seam foot) instead of a foot for regular sewing. I replaced it with my satin stitch foot and things got much easier. Easier, but not easy. I think I should try the zigzag foot, too.

L to R: zigzag foot, satin stitch foot, and 1/4" seam foot

I hardly got anything done. At the end of 4 hours I only had about a dozen of these half-chevron pieces finished. 

But I did get all the time-consuming stuff out of the way, and today I made excellent progress and got many more pieces done.

And, there is a surprise ending. When I ordered the Essential Triangle Tool, it came with a free Bonus Buddy Ruler. I have never used the Bonus Buddy Ruler, but I used it today. I am pleased to announce that, as a byproduct of using the Bonus Buddy method, I ended up with a bonus pile of little half square triangles (all finished !) which will be used later in this quilt!

Hooray for Bonus Units!

Lessons learned:

• Test your marking pens and pencils to see if they really do wash out.
• Use a cutting mat, not newspapers, for a base when marking small pieces of fabric.
• Pinning matters. Pin on your sewing line, even if it is not along an edge.
• Do not use a 1/4" seam foot on a diagonal seam.
• Don't expect to get much done when you have friends over. 
• Sew with friends from time to time. Use the occasion to show off your work. Problem-solve and brainstorm with another person who is really into sewing. Get the next generation hooked on sewing. Socialize. Don't be a hermit and spend all your time alone with a sewing machine. That's no fun.