I am an idiot. Please help!
 

I'm new to quilting. I'm working on my second quilt and I swear to God that I measured 4 times, but guess what I did? Cut my square too short. Is there a product like a tape that I can tape on the extra .5 inch that I need (since I have no extra fabric other than some scrap) or am I s.o.l?

Thanks

Taping will not work. However, if you have extra fabric, you can sew pieces together to "make" a new piece of fabric that is large enough. If you have a piece that is 1.5" wide and as long as your square, for example, you can sew it on and then cut the resulting piece to the correct measurement. Old-time quilters often had only small scraps to work with and would do this to get a piece of fabric large enough to cut to the size needed.

That's what I've had to do....put some scraps (even scraps that are different fabric) together to make another piece. Once you quilt it, you can't really tell where it is

I have had to do this before and it works. You cannot see it on the completed quilt. Don't get discouraged, just chock it up to a learning experience and move on. :sew:

You are not an idiot. Believe me, a quilter who has not done what you have done at least once, is a rare thing indeed. And I don't think quilters are the only ones. I bet carpenters do it a lot too, hence the carpenters credo "measure twice, cut once". We all know that saying and still we end up with the occasional short, pieced together with scraps piece. I have more than a few borders on quilts with a 1/2" patch in them.

Don't worry, this is a mistake that many of us make -- if I am cutting and let my mind wander the least little bit I am guaranteed to have miss-cut at least one block (or a whole border length -- which is really annoying). As others have said, if you have a scrap that is at least 1 1/2" wide, sew it on and then re-cut the block. When I patch like this, I try to check the adjacent blocks and make sure the seam does not encounter the seams of any adjacent block. I also sometimes press the seam open so I have less bulk, but once quilted only you know it was a mistake.

I use iron on fusible on the back of the fabric. After quilting it cannot be seen.

Happens to all of us. Some of my "best" quilts came out of making just such a mistake and then getting creative to make some kind of quilt out of my mistakes.

Prism 99 has the answer, so I won't go into it. good luck and have fun1

Yes even carpenters can't get it right. You should see how many homes are off in their square footage.

My mom was a garment sewer and did lots of it. I can remember her doing the exact thing to have enough fabric for a pattern piece (of which some were homemade patterns). She called this piecing "patching." She'd say, "I had to patch to get all of the pieces." Congratulations on being a new quilter. Don't hesitate to ask questions when you have a problem.