bearisgray

Some of my "duh" moments -

When I realized that the fabrics used on the pattern are no longer available -

When I "oiled" my sewing machine with "fray check" - must have been really tired when I did that - did an emergency run to a Bernina dealer - cost almost as much to ungunk it a it would have been to buy a new machine -

That Rowenta irons do not survive forever -

That an automatic shutoff iron will heat up again when it's moved (if it's not properly turned off) My carpet has a souvenir of that when I set the iron down on it for some reason or other.

When I misread the cutting directions or forgot to set aside the fabric for the borders -

Any of you willing to admit to similar errors?

Synnove

Ohhhh yeahhh. Just a couple days ago I was sewing 2.5 inch strips together, to be cut into units for piecing 4 patches. I ironed the side-by-side strips open. Then, instead of cutting pieces from the strip pairs 2.5 inches wide, to be sewn into 4 patches, I cut them 4.5 inches wide because that's the width of the finished block. So where did that leave me? Having to go back and cut each unit 2.5 inches, and throwing the now-too-small trimmed off part into the crumb bin.

Iceblossom

My biggest moment was while making a traditionally pieced queen sized storm at sea. I like to do all of a step at a time for consistency, and I sewed all the skinny triangles to the large diamonds wrong... took them off carefully, went to a fresh side of the diamond and sewed them on all wrong again. I learned some things. Test blocks good... angles work this way... I didn't like undoing then and I hate it now... The rest of you might have learned some new words and phrases from me!

That quilt hung in a large guild show. It wasn't until it was hanging in the show that I realized one of the pieces was wrong side out -- it sort of did make a difference but wasn't too noticeable in a scrap quilt. I had handled each block something like 27 times while making them and assembling the quilt -- and then quilting it all down and up until it was hanging I hadn't noticed the inside-out fabric. I say that fabric has two sides and we get to choose which one we have up, but I had chosen the other side.

Oh well, it was a gift and well received and appreciated and so far as I know they never noticed the one block. At least nothing was said.

toverly

Just today, had to cut 2 3/4 inch squares and at some point, I went to 2 1/2 inch squares. Didn't realize it till I didn't get overlap after sewing. Now I have lots of 2 1/2 inch squares.

quiltingcotton

When I was in a rush yesterday to finish up assembling my last set (row) of blocks. I was sewing them one after the other, adding each new piece as I restarted on the pile. After sewing the last block, I saw that I had one piece left over that didn't have a block to go with it. I knew I had cut the right amount of pieces that I needed. But I couldn't wrap my head around it and it confused me for a moment until I ironed my blocks and realized that - no I didn't cut an extra piece, but that I had sewn two blocks layered together. Luckily I was able to get the two sewn together apart without destroying them and then sheepishly finished sewing that block again and adding the last piece to the last block to finish!

GingerK

Ohhhh where do I begin.
Sewing two layers instead of one--uep done that.

Mis-cutting pieces--oh that was a costly one for me. It was for a wedding quilt and the largest piece in the block. Thank goodness I only cut half the pieces needed so only had to replace half the fabric--plus shipping of course.

Sewing the wrong side of the fabric--how about sewing a whole block into a quilt inside out and not noticing until the top was put together. Of course it wasn't an edge block, was it.

And my favourite--marking the line for joining the binding and then cutting on it instead of adding 1/2 inch...that earned a few bad words.

mkc

Let's see...

Not paying attention to which rectangle a corner square was supposed to be sewn to, and sewing 40 of them. Undone, then sewed on the correct rectangle but on the wrong corner, on all 40. Then repeated the first mistake with a second set of 40 cut pairs. And this was with labels pinned to each stack of cut pieces - I just simply looked at the picture and didn't look at the piece labels in the instructions.

Stitching on a diagonal line and cutting 1/4" off, when I was supposed to stitch 1/4" on either side of the line and cut on the line. At least I caught that one early while I still had more fabric (the excess waste on the first few is what made me stop and check).

Not realizing my spool of monopoly had partly unwound and was hanging out of the drawer and on the floor. I vacuumed up about 1/4 of the spool before I realized what was going on. No way I was going to try and recover all that lost thread.

Mkotch

One year I made 100 small chevron blocks for a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt just 1/2" too small. So I had to make 100 more. Luckily, it was scrappy so I had enough fabric. Then the question was, what to do with the 100 chevrons! Here's what I made - it works well as a table cloth.

aashley333

My moments usually involve scissors.

Snooze2978

My recent DUH moment came when I was deciding to do some more strip cutting but got confused on which fabric I was using for the sashings between the blocks. I cut 16 strips WOF at 2.5" in the black fabric before I realized I was using a green batik fabric for the sashings. I put those miscuts on a hanger with leftover strips for another project but found I could use them after all cutting the down to 1.5" to go on either side of the green sashing. I'd tossed the 1" leftover thinking I wouldn't be able to use them but then realized I would be making some throw pilows where I'd need some of them to go around the embroidery so not all was lost.

I'm sure there's been a lot more DUH memonts but that's the one I can think of right now as it just happened a couple weeks ago.