…..although some of my recent work didn’t prove it!!
I was working on a Quilt of Valor using a panel and fabric pack that had been provided by my guild’s Charity Bee……

The first problem was that the panel wasn’t printed straight and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get it to be completely straight……
One side would be straight But the opposite side wouldn’t line up
I finally just picked a point and trimmed the excess fabric off…..

This is when the math wheels fell off!!!!
I had decided to add a 2-inch checkerboard border around the panel so the center panel height and width needed to end up being even numbers. I measured, calculated, re-calculated, cut, and sewed the borders on. Then I measured again……NOOOOOOO!!
When I had planned the vertical border, I failed to include the 1/2 inch needed for seam allowances!!! Instead of unpicking those long seams, I opted to just trim the seam allowance off…..

I now re-cut the borders being sure to add the additional 1/2 inch. What I DIDN’T account for was the 1/2 inch that I trimmed off…..AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH! Fortunately, I figured this out before I sewed them back on again.
At this point, I had run out of the fabric that I was using for the border!! So I trimmed off the bottom and top seam allowance and started over again with a different fabric!!! You can be sure that I added a bit more than I thought I needed. It was a tense moment as I measured the piece to see if I had given myself enough room…..

Now I could move on to making four the four patches and, fortunately, things went better from there. At the end of the day, this was where it stood……

So tomorrow I will take a few math classes and then keep working to grow this piece to an acceptable size!!!
6 thoughts on “I’m good at math….I promise!!!”
I had to laugh with you as I imagined you in your studio working out the math…
I was laughing but mostly hysterically!!!
I think we have all done the same. You think your have it all worked out and then it turns out – not.
But I am impressed how you got there in the end. Most problems can be solved and this one looks good.
Yep. Been there, done that too. Live the checkerboard border.
Looks great! No one can tell there was a lot of measuring and math to get you there, unless we’ve done the same struggle too. It’s a real challenge when the panels aren’t square / equal on sides and top / bottom.