What Drove Me Crazy About the Block

I have decided that after redoing my heart block that I need to point out the mistakes.  First mistake is having the wrong cutting mat and a used blade.  After changing those things it eased up the problem tremendously.  Working with precision in mind caused a lot of redoing and riping out in order to get a better block.  Having said that there comes a time when you must evaluate what is acceptable.  I started to think about precision.  When it occurred to me that the center block measurements where not ever coming out right.  The square in the middle set at an angle so I got advice about the problem of bias and I tried a few things.  Starch helped me a little.  Yet these blocks never quite made the point when I set the blocks around it.  So I realized that the square was 3 3/8 and the squares cut in to triangles were 2 7/8.  Which lead me to realize that you can not divide those evenly and therefore the problems might just be the design.  I started looking at all of my centers and not one of them did all 4 make the point. 

First Block

New Block

This is the new block. While it is better it isn't perfect.  I can tolerate this one.  I did sill have to do some ripping out and even had to redo one part. 

I am now going to show you each section in comparison.

This one you can see how far off the points at the top are off. They are not centered.  The point at the left tip doesn't make a point on that side.  The one on the right has a point left of where it should be.  At the bottom it doesn't meet the next point.  It is really pretty darn bad!

New Block

Now this is the new one. As you can see it is pointed much better. Still the bottom point is not quite where it should be but it is nose to nose with the point below it. I can live with this one.

First Block

This one is awful too.  I am shaking my head. None of the points are correct except the one at the left top.   Even the hearts bottom points are really bad.  Not much to save here!

New Block

This Block is much better.  All points with the exception of the point at the bottom of this heart are dead on.  The point at the bottom is a bit off but it is aligned with the center diamond.

First Block

The triangle at the top is not too bad.  Centers correctly with the point above and side are good to.  The twin peaks are all bad except for the center.  I can't handle this one either.  NO GOOD!

New Block

This one the top triangle misses slightly and the bottom peaks and valleys are a bit wonky.  The left point is higher than the right point.  The right point is spot on in my book.  But I am not taking it apart again.  This looks so much better than the first one.

First Block

Worst of the worse!  Triangle is the only good thing.  The top of the heart is a disaster!  I hate it.  It doesn't even look like a heart! 

New Block

This Block is better.  Once again the triangle of the heart has a bad point but all the rest are pretty good.  The match up below the heart with the brown is not matched up good.  AM I BEING PICKY?  My friend tells me just enjoy it and don't be so picky.  But I am who I am.  I think I have made more than plenty allowances for mistakes on this new block.  Not one of them is perfect.

First Block

As you can see opposite points do not meet on this one.  This one is bad.

New Block

As you can see this one looks a lot better but still no perfection.  In fact none of the centers had all four points come out right.  Which leads me to believe there was a design flaw with this particular one.  I would have to go to the drawing board to figure it out.  I might do that but not right now.  Anyway it will stay as it is.  I love this quilt regardless of its flaws.  But having said that there probably won't be any unless I design them after this.  It is fun though to learn.

I could go on with the rest of this block but I won't bore you with it any longer.  I just had to show what the problems have been for this first timer!