Well you know how things are planned out in your mind. And how the SOMETIMES don't quite work out that way? Well I planned this baby quilt and need to get the top done today. I was on track until I went to put the blocks together.

Dang It! my elephant applique blocks were supposed to be 12.5 inches but due to a cutting error on the backing they will have to be 12 inches. No problem right? I can make that work, but now my corner patchwork blocks are measuring 13 inches instead of 12.5. Dang It! I guess I already said that.

Any suggestions? I thought about adding a border to the outside of the elephant blocks but that messes with the patchwork which I had planned on running through the entire quilt.

i had planned patchwork in the outer corners and the middle square and 4 elephant blocks in the middle sides and top. The quilt being 3 blocks x 3 blocks before borders.

Please help before I throw it out!

Sheila

Can you cut the elephant blocks smaller, add a border around each block, then trim so they are the same size?

You have the option of adding a border around the elephants to make them bigger. How big are the elephants? You can trim the blocks to the smallest possible without touching the elephants, and add a border to make them 13 inches. You can also redo them and save those for another project.

Do you have any pictures? Is easier to understand with pics.

Hey Grammy, you are faster typing than me.

You might be able to "stretch" or "shrink" the blocks using Sharon Schamber's blocking method. She has videos on Youtube. Perhaps some combination of this with trimming will make the different sized blocks compatible with each other.

Here are links to a couple of the videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3RIWhBvcA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQkF02vpVuw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6aplw_tVZc

The middle video shows her stretching a block 1/2".

Could you trim the 13" blocks down & not mess up the pattern?
A picture would help us help you.

sorry to hear that you are having problems, maybe this will be a cool creative pattern in the works

they say things happen for a reason, good luck!

wow, thanks for these links, we learn something new everyday when mistakes happen, thanks

i took note of the fact that you don't think adding borders to the elephants will work. that may or may not be the case.

lay out all the blocks in the way you had originally intended.

take a photo and post it. once we can see it, i'm sure you'll get lots of helpful suggestions based on blocks we can see next to each other.

this can be fixed. i'm sure of it. take a deep breath. it's going to work out. ;-)

Okay I knew I needs pics to help you out.

So here they are. I was going to load them earlier but had unexpected company show up.

Thanks for all the suggestions earlier. My idea was to quilt diagonal lines using the corners of the blocks in the patchwork to follow. there fore I wanted the corners of the patchwork to match up to the center block of patchwork.

Hope you all have some suggestions.

Thanks-

Sheila

just a thought here...
maybe you could cut the right size background and re-cut the elephants and applique them on the square.

If you add a border to the elephants to make the unfinished blocks the exact same size as your unfinished patchwork blocks you will still be able to do your grid quilting matching up the corners of the patchwork. The border will not mess that up. This would look very cute with borders of blue around your elephants. This quilt is very cute BTW.

You could also border the elephants with the same fabric you used for the background, if you don't want a different color to mess up the effect you're wanting. Maybe even miter the borders on the elephants so it looks like you wanted to do it that way.

Looks to me a border around the elephants the same blue as the patches / either light or use both.. would look just great as if you planned to frame them in!

Now that I see the quilt, I agree with Pam1966. You could go one step farther & put a rick rack or pipping (of the darker blue) sewn in the seam when you put a mitered border of the same background fabric on it. Would make the elephants look like a planned frame around them. By the way. The quilt is going to be awesome. You have done a fantastic job on it.

I think your little elephants would look fab with a blue border, just the way you planned it! (wink, wink)

How about cutting new background fabric in blue. Then trim the white in a circular or oval and applique that to the new background. You could even secure it with a ribbon or something fancy. It would look like pictures of an elefant.

This was exactly my thought, too, as soon as I saw the picture. Have you got any more of the white background? If so, I think it's the perfect solution ... quite a bit more work for you, but that ship has sailed ... it's going to be more work whatever you decide to do.

Adorable !!!
Border both w/medium dk.blue to equal up block sizes, should look similar but w/2 size blocks should make all the colors pop....
Good Luck, you know you don't want to toss somthing so cute!!!
Didn't I see a thread that refered to no rules!! :)

I'm confused. That pic makes it look like it will go together fine as it is. What am I missing?

Are you sure once you sew the seams that it will not fit together? It just looks like it won't until you add the seams!

Well life got in the way and have been spending all awake time taking care of mom. But tonight I have to spend the night finishing this quilt. I want to thank all of you that gave me suggestions. I still have to trim off another 1/2 inch from the white blocks making them 1 inch smaller than the patchwork (just hadn't done that before taking pictures).

I think i am going to frame out the elephants and just go with it.

And no I wouldn't trash it, but the thought crossed my mind at first, LOL. Just needed to cool down and not be so frustrated with myself.

Will post pictures when I am finished.

Thanks again-

Sheila