charmednmissouri

When I began quilting 3 years ago, I wanted to practice, using real patterns, like most of us would. I found this cute pattern that I thought I could easily do. And I could now, LOL! But upon going thru my UFO's, I found these blocks, all 16" in size, using lovely fabrics. My sewing was terrible at that time. Seams do not match, half of the blocks are as much as 1/2" larger than the other the other half of the blocks. What should I do with them? Should I get out the seam ripper and do them correctly? Should I cut them into 4 peices and try to make a "disappering block"? If you encountered this, what would you do? I would hate to throw them out, and the idea of using my seam ripper to rip up all this block just goes against everything in me, LOL! The disappering blocks could be an option, but I would have to chop one up to see how it looked. Has anyone else discovered this situation? What did you do? Or, if you were in my shoes, what do you think I should do? I know this sounds like a silly problem, but I truely am stumped as to what is the best solution. Any ideas would be appriciated!

SusieQOH

Hmmm. .... not sure what to tell you.
Okay what I would do? If I absolutely love the fabrics I may try to redo them. Sometimes I like a project like that.
If not I would just say to myself "learning experience" and move on.

Chester the bunny

Could you post a picture of the block? That way we could see what options you might have to cut them down, or up or add to them to make them all the same size. Just need to see if there are points that might get cut off.
Don't worry, someone will have a solution

Tartan

If the pieces in the 16 inch blocks were fairly big, I would take them apart and either redo the pattern or find another pattern that I could cut them for.
I do not use a seam ripper, I use my little pointed thread snips and snip every 3-4 stitches on one side of a seam and then pull out the thread on the other side. I think it causes less distortion and once ironed, the pieces are almost as good as new.

charmednmissouri

I will post pics tomorrow. No points in the blocks, all pieces are either squares or rectangles. That's why my newbie self thought they would be so easy...& would be if I made them today. But 3 yrs ago, they didn't turn out quite straight. Pictures tomorrow!
And thank you for the advice!

nativetexan

if you have the time, rip, rip, rip. nice fabrics deserve to be used well. have fun and let us see later.

PaperPrincess

If they are no points to cut off, I would just trim them all down to the smallest square size. Join block to block, or add sashing.

cjsews

Another option is to border all the blocks and then square them up trimming the borders as needed. Add a little more width than you want so you have some wiggle room

AmyBible

Honestly I don't think you should unsew & re-do them. Embrace them. You could use your idea of making them a disappearing block - 16" is certainly large enough to do that... are they all different blocks? Could look interesting.

What I would do is make them the same size & put them together - either sew a narrow border on each one so you can trim to the same size OR, just trim to the same size. If they are all squares & rectangles who is to say what the block "should" look like? Some pieces might end up smaller than they "should" but it's who is to say you did not make a creative decision to alter the original pattern?

RedGarnet222

Are the blocks supposed to fit together to make a pattern? If not I would just cut down the oversized ones and finish it up for myself or a charity donation. That is a lot of fabric to waste.