Please help newbie salvage quilt top. Thanks!!
 

I'm a newbie, I've been quilting since May. I designed this quilt top but messed up on my cutting. All of the horizontal sashing pieces were supposed to be 2 1/2" high. After I assembled this I realized a few are bigger, looks like I cut them 3" high. Ack - where was my mind?

I don't have the heart to rip this apart and start over but I'm very disappointed in myself. Can I possibly cut it down into squares and reassemble it so my mistakes either don't show or aren't as obvious?

This one was supposed to be a Christmas gift but now I doubt that it will. I'll probably just give it as an everyday gift where the expectations are lower.

Any and all ideas will be appreciated. Really really disappointed today. :( Thanks.

Well, you know what, I would just quilt it as it is. Call it a design element. I like it. There will, however, probably bee some better answers coming. :)

Dina

Ha!! That was my first thought too - say "I planned it that way!". Then I showed it to hubby and he said it just jumped out at him that something was wrong and he knows nothing about quilts. He said if he could notice it, other people would too.

PS. Should have mentioned before. This is a lap quilt. After I squared off this center part there was to be a solid dark blue border. I was going to FMQ it. The picture doesn't capture it but the rectangles graduate from beige with a little blue to white with a little blue. It was my "theme".

This looks as if it was designed to be staggered. Just go with it!

looks like one of my quilts �� you hardly notice the mistakes, in yours that is.....finish it and when quilted will look fine

Once you get it quilted , the mistakes won't show as much. Quilting does add a lot to a top. Leave it and go on to the next one. You will do better with every quilt. My advice is to stick with patterns for awhile. They will teach you how to cut and piece better. That's how it went for me anyway. Good luck

Oh, you folks are making me feel so much better!!

OK, so if I tell people "I made it this way" and it's a staggered quilt, can you give me ideas how to make the bottom straight? If I just cut it off the way it is now, I will have a 2" beige sashing on one side with the other ones getting progressively smaller until the last one is about 1/2". Should I try to add a bit of something to that 1/2" one? The same beige? Do you think the bottom should be kept the way it will be - staggered??

KenmoreGal2, can't begin to tell you how many "mistakes" I've covered up with applique. :cool:

I'm new enough that I don't understand if I could cover this particular mistake with applique. Could I?

I also vote for keeping it the way it is. Give it a weird/clever name that makes it feel more deliberate..."The Slow Dissolution of the Rectangle" or something geeky like that!

For the bottom...I think you've got lots of options!
One option is to cut through the beige to make it straight and then put another strip of beige to bring it back to full length.

Or you could cut higher, through the bottom of the white blocks (so the bottoms of the white blocks would now be even but the boxes would be of varying heights) and then put your beige bottom border back on. (I think this is probably what *I* would do, but this is YOUR quilt!)

Or you could cut the beige down on the bottom, figure out what thinnest part of the beige at the bottom is and cut the beige on top to match that width, and then add a contrasting fabric to both top and bottom.

Or if you are just not happy with it at all there's always the "nuclear option" - you could just chop the whole quilt top into squares and then play with the squares until you have an interesting scrappy crazy quilt design. :) But I don't think you need to get that drastic, I think it looks great just how it is.

Please post some pics when you finish it up!