5 Things I've Learned this Week

while stitching my Lavender & Twine

Hello friend. My name is Jodi Godfrey and I make mistakes. Lots of them. All. the. time. And I always try to learn what I can from them and keep trying.

This week was particularly educational. Can I share the errors of my ways so that you can learn from me and not to have to wait until you make them yourself? You’re welcome. ;P

1. Don’t sew for praise.

I had such a great idea Sunday night for a fun little reel! You know the ones the come just as you’re drifting off? I decided that if I woke up before my alarm, I’d finish a Lavender & Twine block so that I could film it. At 6am, I woke with a fun little buzz (not the alarm type, the one you get in your chest when you’re doing something creative!) and dove into sewing my pieces together. I thought maybe it would take a couple of hours, but in the end it took a few more, all the while pushing myself to stay focussed and sew. Eve and I filmed and posted the reel, and I sat back satisfied until the next morning. Usually I’m so careful with my hands - I go slow, I take breaks, I get up and move around, but that day, I’d pushed myself too hard. I woke up with a terrible flare up of RSI. :( And the worst thing? The reel didn’t even go that well!

Such a good reminder that this quilt is not here for likes or views or praise, but for my joy. I’m making a promise to my poor hands that I’ll remember that while making the rest of this quilt.

2. Tidy up fabric you want to use again.

My 12 year old has been home sick this week. On day 3, she was that that stage where she’s no longer asleep half the day, and she’s bored of TV, and she just needs to DO something! I agreed to let her try and sew a T-shirt. I let her know that I’d never sewn a T-shirt, that I didn’t have a pattern or T-shirt fabric, I didn’t have the brain space to try and figure it out with her but she was welcome to my sewing machine and Youtube. She’s of the age and personality that she didn’t want mine or Youtube’s help anyway. She closed my new studio doors and sewed up a storm for 2 hours.

When I came in later that day, I discovered that my pink Kaffe Fassett woven fabric that I’m using for my Lavender & Twine squares, and had been sitting on my cutting bench, looked like this:

Absolutely, completely hacked from all sides! If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.

Here’s her creation:

Yep, that’s also my precious Little Folks voile that went out of print about 10 years ago! Still, this is basically the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Great use of colour, questionable shape and construction, but proof that even if you make something without following the rules, it can still be fantastic. It won’t survive the first wash, but it did give her 2 hours of creative flow! (And me a little proud-mum moment.)

Still, I’m definitely paying more attention to the fabric she wants to use next time!

(Psst! If you want to get creative with that Selvedge Magic fabric too, I have bundles of it here! ;P)

3. Take more photos of dogs.

After resting my hand for a few days, I felt ready to start gingerly and carefully and slowly stitching again. I added some more Lavender & Twine bouquets to 2 more blocks and pinned them on my design wall, Later, after moving this armchair so the air conditioner guy could get the wall on the weekend, I noticed Lola had taken residence and looked so cute! I snapped away so that I could share photos of her and my Lavender & Twine progress. While brightening up the photos for Instagram, I noticed something. Can you see it?

There on the left - I’d sewn the bouquets around the white kites instead of the green! I’d even made an entire video sewing it and hadn’t noticed! Oh dear.

After getting over the disappointment of using my precious hand reserves for a block I needed to unpick, I was grateful for this one. I didn’t even think while sewing that I needed to pay attention to placement. It hadn’t occurred to me that I could make this mistake! But I picked it up before I made any more and I know to pay attention now. Thanks Lola!

4. Check the pattern a 5th time.

I don’t know if you remember a couple of weeks ago, I said I needed to cut out the whole quilt to check fabric requirements? Well, I cut all the cream (it’s actually Free Spirit solids in Shell) according to our instructions, and hurray! All the strips were correct for the number of shapes, and added up to the total requirement we’d calculated (always with a little extra in case you make a mistake cutting). Pattern was checked off and ready to go!

But what I hadn’t thought to triple check was that the strip widths were correct. When I went to cut my strips into half houses this week, I noticed that we’d made an error! We’d asked for 1 1/2” strips, giving the shapes a 1/4” seam allowance. But I like to allow 3/8”. It should be 1 3/4”. I’m sorry! This kind of error is usually picked up in testing, but this time it slipped my mind.

The pattern has now been updated on page 3 and 5, and the update sent out to everyone who bought it. If you got an update notification, that’s why! If you’ve already bought your background fabric, it didn’t affect total yardage. I decided to use the strips I’d cut and put up with the 1/4” seam allowance. It’s not my favourite, but it’ll be fine!

5. Sew with friends.

Finally, a great lesson not learned from a hard consequence! While scrolling Instagram the other day, I saw a post from Sash showing that she was trying out basting the edge shapes without basting the outside edges. That way, she wouldn’t need to release any seams she’d accidentally sewn in so that she could trim the block. Genius! I’ve given it a go and I love it!

In the Lavender & Twine Quilt, all the long edges of the half houses and half square triangles face the outside of the block, so it’s easy to remember which seams to leave open. Here’s what mine look like sewn into some of the edge blocks!

I’m still finishing my stitching in line with the paper shapes so that the knots at the end of the seam don’t get trimmed off. I’ll make a video and share it on my Insta and Fbook so you can see how I’ve done it.

I’ll be making lots of videos over the next few weeks and during the Lavender & Twine quilt-along. If you’d love to sew with friends - learning from my mistakes, and from fun ideas the group comes up with, join us! It’s fun sewing in company, even if that company is virtual!

Well! I’m completed armed with a ton of new lessons to carry me forward making this quilt! I hope it’s a good reminder that it’s completely human and fine to make mistakes, to be tired, to have a foggy brain, to forget. You are worthy of wasted fabric and messes that need cleaning up and rest and the joy of stitching.

Wishing you healthy 12 year olds and helpful dogs (or whatever the equivalent might be in your situation!)

Jodi. xx

PS. If you haven’t bought the Lavender & Twine EPP kit yet, grab it here!