Moo to You, Sarah!

It's that time again, friends.

Time for a bit of a moo from a Cranky Old Woman.

What's it about this time?

A pattern designer who obviously didn't test her pattern! Mooo!

So, the quilt in the book was beautiful. It was perfect, even. Perhaps that is why I wanted to make it! The quilt in the book is a double-bed size. Near the end of the directions were the specs for a 40-inch baby quilt. Exactly what I had in mind. The quilt has a 100-piece center square with massive flying geese on all four sides, with the wings also pieced. So far, so good. Really liking how it is going. Then I'm ready to cut the square for the center part of the geese and the author prescribes a 19-1/2 inch square, cut diagonally twice. Plus four squares, each 10-1/2 inches, for the corners.

No, friends, it did not occur to me that the measurement might be wrong. Not until I had cut the square and the diagonals. Not until I started to apply the wings and they were way too big. And the illustration in the book shows that center to be oversized "to allow for individual differences in piecing." I struggled, I snarled, I just may have annoyed my colleagues. Then I did the math, for crying out loud. With the center square finishing at 20 inches there was no way that cutting that square for the geese should be 19-1/2 inches.

Fortunately, I had purchased additional fabric, so I cut a square at 21-1/2 inches and proceeded. The top is finished and it is pretty. It is as terrific as I had expected it to be. But I wasted a nice chunk of fabric.

Ma'am, you are selling this book for close to $30 in American money. That is not cheap, and neither is the fabric I bought. For this price I would expect you to have had your alternate size directions tested to be sure they are accurate.

Mooooo!

Comments

Susan said…
Thank goodness I haven't run across that problem yet in my quilting life. All the "mistakes" in the patterns I've used have been due to my not reading the directions carefully. I would be mightily annoyed if I found directions that were written incorrectly.
ytsmom said…
Yes, that makes me mad, too! You should post a review on Amazon, if you have not already. Luckily, you got it figured out. Will you share a picture with us? Thanks
Anonymous said…
So, did you send an email either to Sarah or the publisher about the error? sometimes it isn't just the pattern designer, but sometimes the "team" after the designer passes it on or editor as well. I have heard some horror stories from some of the Kansas City Star quilt book editors. If you let them know, they can publish the "errata".

I agree it is not a happy occasion to have this happen!
suz said…
I had that happen once so now I go to the author's website to check for corrections.
Barbara Anne said…
What a bummer! I'm so sorry you ran into this annoying problem but hope those erroneously cut fabrics can be used somehow in another project or for the backing of this project.

I'm looking forward to seeing a photo of your new baby quilt top. Applause for doing the math and making it work!!!

Hugs!
LizA. said…
That's beyond irritating. I guess I better start checking authors' errata pages. I'd be mooing too....
Annie said…
I can feel your pain and frustration. A couple of years ago I bought a quilting book about making spiral quilts. There were so many mistakes in that book that the corrections were pages and pages long! The book is worthless to me because I would in all practicality have to rewrite it to make all the corrections. I'll never buy another of that author's books.