row by row fail

I was initially incredibly excited about the row by row experience. Between something to get me out of the house and something to motivate me to sew, I was pumped to finish something, even though I've got two baby quilts to finish before the babies arrive, a show quilt to finish before September and ... there was another and. I've forgotten it. Maybe it was trying to win a bundle of fabric.

Anyway.

Excitement. Then I started reading some of these patterns. Maybe it's because I'm a teacher. Maybe I'm tired from spending the last month moving things around in my house to get things ready to move things in from me grandparent's house that we're breaking apart. Maybe it's the migraines. Maybe it's a combination of all of these things.  But wow... some of these patterns were very poorly written.

You tell me to cut rectangles, squares and rectangles and star points and I'm just going to cut... and then realize after the fact that I just cut up a whole quarter yard of fabric that I didn't need to cut up. Part of which I needed for other parts of this project, and not in the shapes that it's now been chopped up into. And this fabric is seven or eight years old, and I can't get any more. Even though I read the pattern ahead of time. Twice. I still cut up a quarter yard of fabric into all the pieces for a star block that needs two different colors of fabric. Was it because I was tired? was it because a very high energy friend stopped by in the middle of my cutting spree and I lost track of my progress while I was cutting? Should I have taken my own advice and highlighted the different fabric parts different colors [even thought I can't find a pen, pencil, paint brush or roll of tape to save my life because it looks like we are moving even though we are not] because that's how the pattern should have come to me IN THE FIRST PLACE?!

I don't know. But now, I really appreciate the subscription I pay for the quilt magazine that comes bi-monthly, with the patterns that are tested by a team of people for just this reason. Because, inevitably, I'm going to be too tired to notice that I'm cutting up a quarter yard of fabric that I don't need to be.