Three Times the Charm!

I finally did it, I made pieced-block number three!

I really struggled with this one too. Of course the first thing I did wrong was to cut three of the pieces a quarter inch too big...reading four and a quarter inches square as four and a half inches square. I thought I could just trim them down a smidgen and all would be fine. Wrong! It turned out almost exactly a quarter inch short, all the way around!

I adjusted, and sewed, and ripped apart, those blasted borders at least five or six times!!! I was sure the directions were wrong and questioned the group I am in that is also making the block, as well as the pattern maker. I think I started working on this block on Monday...THREE days for a 9.5" block! Triangles will get you every time. So will sloppy reading of directions or not sewing a true quarter inch seam allowance!

After getting confirmation from several others, that the cutting directions were devoid of errors, I started working out to find where my error was. I still am not 100% sure what I did wrong. I finally made the two outside green-print corner triangles a little bigger and trimmed them back to size. Here is a photo showing the left side already trimmed and the right side not yet trimmed:

Thank goodness I have a 6.5" square ruler in my studio. 

It made it a lot easier to correctly cut these border strips to be 2" by 6.5".

Once they were cut to size, I put them on either side of the center red/yellow star block:

To be sure this was correct, I also measured the block from top to bottom and it came out at exactly 9.5" long....perfect!!!

The two side borders had yellow squares on either end. Before attaching them, I made sure the middle parts were also 2" by 6.5". They were! I sewed on the yellow squares and added these last two sides. I now have a nearly perfect Jingle Belle Pieced Block #3.

Hallelujah!