I am making a Hunter Star quilt using a pattern in the "Hunter Star Quilts & Beyond" book by Jan Krentz. The book offers several ways to create your quilt, and I opted for the strip pieced method. The actual pattern for the design I chose, Batik Hunter Star, states a finished block of 8". In the assembly directions, it guides you to a pattern for the trapezoid shapes for the corresponding block sizes. When I followed the directions per the strip pieced section (including photos), my trapezoids came out way too small. My seams are exactly 1/4". Of course, I cut them all as indicated - which took forever - only to discover they don't work. :cry: :cry: :cry:

I checked my measurements several times, checked the instructions frequently. That leads me to believe that the instructions had either the wrong size pattern (no indication to enlarge it or anything), or it had listed the wrong finished block size/cut size of the triangles.

I'm so frustrated, but not sure where to go from here. I've been collecting batiks for awhile, so I don't know if I can get more of what I have to re-do the trapezoids. Another option is to cut down the size of the triangle to fit the trapezoids, but I'd need more fabric to make additional blocks in order to keep the overall size of the quilt similar.

How often to pattern/instruction errors happen? Has it happend to you? How did you deal with it? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for allowing me to vent my frustrations.

Just a follow up - I Goggled the book and found the author's website. I contacted her via email and received a response less than 20 minutes later! Not bad for a Saturday night. The template was wrong (yeah, it wasn't me!). However, I'm still stuck with 96 trapezoid units that are too small for the triangles. I replied back to her asking her to help me calculate what size to cut the triangles down to, since I don't have enough fabric to recut the trapezoids.

That was quick response! Too bad you had to ruin so many units after all that work.

I emailed a magazine once to let them know their instructions were wrong and they posted a correction on their website. Some of the sites has 'oops' pages.

I hope you can make it work. I know how frustrating a pattern error can be - one of the reasons I rarely use a pre-made pattern. Good luck, I'll be looking for pictures.

Can you post pictures of the fabric you need? and the size square? I use batiks a lot so may have some of it.

Judy

2nd follow up -

Jan Krentz was kind enough to quickly respond to my plea for help. She gave me instructions in figuring out what size to cut the triangles down to match the trapezoid units I had already cut. I did as she suggested and was able to successfully figure out that I needed to cut them down to 5-5/8" sides. I will wait until another day to trim the rest (my brain is like mush now).

It will take some calculating to figure out how many more squares I need to make the size quilt I want. Then I will need to figure how how much more fabric I need. I can add different batiks for the triangles, but am hoping I have enough of the yellows for the stars so I can keep them consistent as I originally planned. If I had to, I could use different yellows, but I took so long choosing the "perfect" ones.

That is very sweet of you! Thank you for offering. I will try to get some pics tomorrow.

This has happened to me only once (thankfully), and when I went to their website the correction was posted. Too bad they do tell you with BEFORE you cut :).
Glad things seem to be working out for yo now.

I've had instructions with errors in them too.

Bad language bad language bad language.

Especially after I've cut and sewn and found out things weren't working, like what happened to you.

So sorry to hear about the error. At least she emailed you right away and also is helping to correct the problem.