Do you know what bamboozle means? Or is that something I made up?
Anyway . . . I bought this pattern at a quilt show.
http://www.newleafpatterns.com/Patte...ll/firefly.gif
I'm hoping that link will let you see the large version of the picture. It is paper pieced, and I cannot for the life of me get the sun pieces to lie flat. I've done paper-pieced circles before (Statue of Liberty style). When I've done those, I've done a quarter of the circle and then sewn the four quarters together. This is like that, but the suns are sort of stretched out so that the finished quarter is rectangle shaped instead of square like the ones I've done before. I've tried all different ways of pinning it, and I simply cannot (after making five of these) get the suns to lie flat.
I'm ready to give up on it, and I hate that I've wasted my expensive batiks on it. I could quit and still have pieces big enough to use for something else. If I keep going, I feel as if I'm throwing good fabric after bad.
I guess I'm sort of venting, but I wonder if others have ever just given up on a pattern. Or do you fight with it to the bitter end? Or do you know some magic trick for me to get these suns to lie flat? They are so puckered that I doubt even the quilting can hide it. I've put so much work into the five I've made. I keep thinking if I can get just one to lie flat, then I'll take the others apart and do them again. But after five tries, I'm ready to give up.
I put it away once before and took a class. That was how I learned to do the Statue of Liberty style quarter-circle. I had no problems with that. But this is different. The sun is not a perfect quarter circle. It's stretched out somehow. There is one mark I'm supposed to match up, and I've done that. Still, I just can't make it work.
I've been quilting for two years, and I've made 23 quilts. I've never had one defeat me as this one has. I'd love to hear your thoughts.