Santa Sack #2

Phew!! Now I'm really done! It is 11.20PM Christmas Eve and I've finished the second sack. I knew I probably would put it aside and not get this finished until this time next year if I didn't at least do a bit more sewing tonight and since I'd already cut out all the fabric it went together really quickly.

I love these bags with their chickeny cuteness and can't wait to show them off tomorrow. Now I'm off to bed so Father Christmas can drop off my presents. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Santa Sack

This is my last project before Christmas I think. I was going to make two of these, but it has been so hot today that just making one took 4 hours and it is tiring in front of my hot sewing machine. I have the second cut out so maybe if it cools down later tonight I'll get it out and finish it off.

I got these Christmas panels last year in the after Christmas sales. There are two of the tree that you see here and two which are more lime green with three chicks on gifts. I ignored the instructions provided and used some quilt batting to give the bag more substance and lightly quilted around the tree and border. Then I added handles and a bright red lining. Luckily I had heaps of bright red cotton for some reason and this project has used up nearly all of it.

Now I'm off to wrap presents under the air conditioning to fill my new sack!! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Two Crochet Bunnies!

I finished the pink bunny last night. This time it only took me two evenings of work to finish the bunny but I don't know if my tension was tighter, my wool was a different weight, or I didn't follow the pattern correctly on one of the bunnies... because the pink one is smaller! That is ok though because it is going to a little girl and the red one is going to her older brother.

To finish them off I added a blue wool bow for the pink one which is stitched down so hopefully it won't come undone. The red bunny got a leather eye patch to turn him into a tough pirate! yarr!!

If you want to make one yourself see this post for a link to the instructions.

Bunny Amigurumi

The week wherein I get distracted looking at crochet on pinterest.com, then start teaching myself crochet on Wednesday, and have this finished bunny by Sunday.

This little guy took 3 days to finish, but I could have had it finished yesterday if I hadn't been so busy. It is a free pattern so you can make one yourself. It is very simple in that it takes three stitches - chain, single crochet and invisible decrease.

I added a little pompom on his bottom to help him sit! I made the pompom from the same wool using the fork method.

To learn to crochet I used a youtube video which shows the basics, a 3.5mm crochet hook ($2.50) and some old yarn. A couple of false starts which I unravelled and two starts which I clipped off and discarded as they were very wonky and I had constructed an approximation of a square as per the video. Next I printed the bunny project and used a pen to help note the counting and mark off rows I had completed. The arms and legs are the hardest part because they are such narrow tubes!

Developing a Pattern

Original designs can be a lot of fun to develop. When I have an idea I usually do a few drawings on paper to see if my concept design is worth persuing. If I like what I see I continue developing the design before I even touch fabric.

This skull design started with several skull templates of varying shapes. I like to cut them out so I can see how they look free standing outside of the contrains of an A4 sheet of paper (right). Once I have my shape and design I develop it further through the computer (center). The computer stage allows me to straighten the design, mirror elements and make everything more uniform. I always work from the computer design which will go into the final pattern if the mockup is successful.

On the left is the transfer onto fabric ready to begin the embroidery component of this design. As the construction stage begins you need to be prepared to trash your progress and go back to the start to re-develop the design if issues arise. It is good to take time with initial drawings and think about how you will be constructing your project and what you need to take into account before you begin.

So now... we'll see if this one leads to a finished project.

Dog Kerchiefs

I've been distracted from other projects because of a variety of reasons. First up I actually cleaned up my sewing area and put a lot of things away!! I'd accumulated lots of materials which I'd pulled out to contemplate and never put away though projects  I have planned hadn't started, so the last week has been mostly dedicated to putting away and finding new homes for things. I also tried to tackle the back room/junk room. It now looks worse, but it is on its way to being better. This weekend I need to spend some more time in there!

Second, I made another tote bag, like the green one, but in blues to match the cat pouch. A handmade Christmas is well on its way to being finished.

Finally, I made dog kerchiefs... Yes! Those things in the picture are for my mums dog. She asked if I could make her a couple and I thought they wouldn't take too long to whip up. She designed the pattern and gave me the sizes to suit her dog - a kelpie-cross. The first one took me about an hour and a half, but the second one was a breeze at only about 30-40 minutes. I only had red velcro, but I figured the dog won't mind!

They're going to be more than just cute too. Mum is using these as she has a hormone that assists in keeping her dog calm. He was a rescue from a farm where he was mistreated and the hormone really helps him manage stress when meeting people and in other situations that can upset him. The kerchief gives mum somewhere to spray the stuff where he can breath it in as he can't always be sitting on his mat for this treatment. He is a black dog so I used bright colours so hopefully he will look adorable too.

They're really easy to make, so if you have a dog you might want to try this.

How to make a Dog Kerchief

There are 2 parts to the kerchief. 1 x half square triangle (I folded an A4 sheet in half and added 1/2" all the way around) and a 21"x2.5" strip.

Hem the 2 shorter sides of the triangle. I used my rolled hem foot on the machine. Then take the strip, fold it in half and stitch down both sides and a short way along the bottom leaving the middle open.

Turn the ends and iron the strip, folding in the opening and ironing - we're just going to top stitch the triangle so it is enclosed in the strip next. Pin the triangle so that it is centred and inside the strip, then top stitch.

Attach the velcro (I used 3" pieces) and you're done!

RGB Fast Flash LEDs

One of the things that has been suggested in response to some of the e-textile projects I've been working on recently is the addition of flashing lights. LEDs that have built in flashing ability are the easiest way to achieve this result. Years ago a capacitor and other components would need to be added to build a circuit which makes the LED flash, however with improvements in LED technology not only are we seeing different colours, but also these little all in one flashing LEDs which just need to be connected to a battery and off they go. That means our circuit can be simple and less bulky while achieving almost the same result - the difference is we have no control over the speed as it is inbuilt into the LED.

My camera doesn't like taking a video in the dark and had trouble focusing, but hopefully this gives you a great idea of the colours and speed. I had another cool electronic gadget to show you but my camera batteries died between taking the video and getting it to the computer so that will have to wait until batteries are recharged.

Cat Pouch

I've finished the little blue cat pouch and I think it is going to be an awesome Christmas gift!

There were a couple of really tricky parts to complete. Putting in the zip with the lining was very difficult and I don't think I'll do a curved zip like this again. I've done this technique before with straight zips - such as on the chicken purse - but this was a whole new layer of difficulty because the zip is not very flexible and the stitching needs to be quite close and precise. I took my time and got there with it despite some slight wonkiness.

The little fish on the strap was also really difficult as tiny things usually are. I think I spent as much time trying to make the little fish as I did adding the tail and head to the pouch base tonight. I planned on appliqueing the tail before sewing in the zip but completely forgot so I carefully sewed it to only the top layer of the pouch tonight. Then before sewing the opening in the lining I lightly stuffed the paws to give them extra body and squish. The lining is actually squared off and ends under the head.

 

Cat Pouch Head

A floating head!! As the title says, this is going to be a pouch... and actually I'm a little stuck on if I'm going to try and embed the zip into the pouch sewing process or hand sew the zip in at the finish - Japanese quilting style - so I made the head first.

This little cat is inspired by the gorgeous design by Ning Rueanmai. Hers are phone cases, but I thought I would make one big enough to be used as a glasses case instead for a Christmas gift, and while I don't know exactly what it will be used for I think a little larger will give more options.

No patterns forthcoming for this one since it is someone elses design! Check out Ning's Etsy shop because she makes some gorgeous Japanese and Korean style quilted bags and purses!

Oh yeah... and I've been distracted from the embroidered band and nyan cat, but I'm using the excuse that I'm still waiting on the post! I'll get back to them soon as I was hoping to get one finished by this weekend!

Phone Case

I've had a cheap knitted phone case to protect my phone for a while, but due to wear it is starting to get too loose and is falling off in my bag. It is not much protection if it keeps falling off! So I decided I should make myself a phone case.

This is the same idea as my kindle cover, but in smaller scale. It was actually quite tricky to sew the lining and then top stitch because the opening is so small. My kindle cover doesn't have any quilting, but I decided to quilt along the hexagon lines on this design. The back of the strap (below) matches the lining. The fabrics are both Japanese which I think I got at a quilt fair a year or two ago.

The fit is tight at the moment, but like my kindle cover I expect it to relax a tiny bit as the lining and quilt batting settles into the right shape. The closure is velcro and I think my favourite part is the blue owl on the left which is peaking out from behind the strap.

It's good to do a couple of projects that could be completed quickly!

Green Satchel Bag

I started this yesterday and spent a bit of deliberation time working out exactly how I would put in a couple of pockets with zips and make it look nice so this project took me a little longer than expected. Most of the work was done this morning and I think all up it has taken about 6-7 hours not including the time I spent thinking about this yesterday. It is 36 degrees today so I think my poor hot sewing machine needs a break for the afternoon!

The bag is approximately 15"x13" and I've squared off the bottom to about 2" wide. It is fully lined with a small outer pocket and a large inner pocket and the outer is quilted with quilt batting giving it extra strength and substance. The design evolved as I contemplated what I wanted to include and I used the straps as edging to hide the seams on the outer pocket which will also give it strength as well.

I took lots of other progress photos so if there is interest I could develop a pattern. This one is destined to be a gift so I'm also tempted to make one of these for myself, although I was going to do something with applique and more pockets for myself eventually (perhaps over Christmas)... but I think if I make one for myself it will have to be out of chicken fabric!

Glow Threads

I bought a new toy!! This is glow in the dark thread which you can get from the DMC range. I was surprised something so specialised was only $0.90 per skein. I have a little idea for this but I also think it has lots of potential to be used with some of my electronic LED designs as well.

I received a couple of my packages this week, but nothing too exciting. My green and blue LEDs are here and they're really pretty colours. It is amazing that we can now make so many different colours of LEDs depending on the active element inside the little globe. They are ingenious little gadgets.

I've been pretty busy in the past week and this is why. This is my shed which looks a hundred times more organised and tidy. I could hardly move in there a couple of weeks ago. After a couple of weeks cleaning up I decided it was time to get stuck into a bit more construction and get some of the final things I needed for organisation. My awesome dad helped me finish the interior wall (at the back) and build the metal cabinet, then we put up the peg board (right) and the shelf and workbench (left). Lots of tidying later and I have a new workshop so I can go outside to do anything messy!!

After 4 days of working on cleaning up and building in the shed it took me a couple of days to recover, but I'm ready for this weekend and to get some more stitching done!

Band Sampler Continued

I'm still filling this little band, but it is almost done. I've used so many stitches now that I can't remember all of them, but one of my new favourites is that top left flower which I think is oyster stitch - it is like a double chain stitch which is linked together.

It is taking me a little longer than I expected but it is so relaxing to just pick it up and fill in a gap here or there with whatever takes my fancy. Aside from this blog post, tonight I'm heading to bed early to read my book as I'm onto the fourth and last in the series and it is finally getting tense and exciting. If anyone is on the site goodreads.com feel free to add me there!

I spent a fair bit of my Sunday redesigning this blog as I wanted to get the lightbox working, which is a relatively new feature of blogger that didn't work on my old custom designed blog. Being a web designer means I'm never happy with my blogs and websites so I'm always tinkering, but sometimes that means that an estimated hour or so fixing something turns into a full day redesigning. At least that means you can click on the pictures and they open up in the same view without losing the page you are browsing on. Mission accomplished!

I also need to be banned from ebay!! I bought another patchwork book. I can't remember if it is Korean or Japanese, hopefully Japanese so I can read a little of it, but either way the picture directions are usually very thorough and it has lots of nice projects. I'll share it with you as soon as it arrives, but I nearly bought several more and I really can't afford to so I will have to ban myself for a little while. The projects are so beautiful though and inspire me much more than Australian or American quilting. I see a patchwork bag for myself in my future!

Doodling with Thread

Mini Update: A couple of evenings just playing around with thread and I've covered almost half of my band. I think I've used backstitch, chain stitch, detached chain, pistol stitch, french knots, bullion knots and fly stitch... can you see any I forgot to mention?

I'm not using a pattern for this. I'm just adding whatever I feel like and swapping colours as I go. I'm itching to show you what this is going to turn into so I'm going to keep stitching!!

And a big hello to anyone who has joined me from over at Nina's blog!

Embroidering Doodles

Nyan cat is taking a little rest while I wait for the postman to deliver a special addition for it. I am a little impatient to get it finished, but in the meantime I am making a start on something else...

This is a little bit of embroidery. It is only 2" wide and at the moment I dont' have much of a plan. I stared with a couple of drawings but then changed my mind and just started stitching. I'm not entirely sure where this stitching is going except that it is going to be a great "you design it" e-textile pattern. You'll add your own ideas to the embroidered part then take my instructions for adding three LEDs to the design. It will hopefully be a great way to take the plunge with conductive thread without breaking the bank.

So I'm not worrying too much about wonky lines and while I'm mostly using backstitch I've also thrown in some detached chain and french knots so far. I'm sticking to three colours and I've marked where I want to put the LEDs, but after that anything goes! It is like doodling with a pen, but with thread instead.

Nyan Style

Nyan cat is remade and has a rainbow base ready for the next step. The cat takes about 2-3 hours to make. Those little feet and tail take almost an hour by themselves because of the small size. Tweezers are the only way I could get them turned after stitching.

The rainbow wrist cuff base is fairly simple. There are 5 colours pieced like a patchwork quilt with a 1/4" seam. I originally had yellow as well, but decided the tone I have didn't fit with the other colours so I left it out and I like the end result anyway. The ruffle bottom is something I learnt how to do from a Japanese homemade fashion magazine. I'll be explaining how to do it in the pattern if you want to make this yourself and add the ruffle. I wanted the ruffle to add more area to the design without taking up more wrist space as it is already 2" wide.

So it is almost done... but there is one thing more to add and I have something special on order which may not get here until 2 weeks time!!

Miniature Sewing

It was funny to get a comment that the frog should be smaller as I was working on something very tiny at that point. I have been debating whether or not to show this one now or wait until it is finnished, however I made a colour choice mistake and need to make this little guy all over again. This little nyan cat isn't going to go to waste though. I'll think of something for him.

A nyan cat is the combination of a cat and a poptart. Don't ask me why... it is quite popular among internet memes and usually has a rainbow coming out of its butt. Wait and see what the final plan is for this little guy... after I remake him with a better body colour.

You can see how tiny it is. The feet were particularly difficult and I used tweezers to turn them after machine sewing. I'm planning a pattern for him soon so keep an eye out on Happy Bobbin if you're interested.

Frog Finished

So here is a little frog with pins sticking out of him everywhere, holding him to the lilypad. He looks a little shocked... perhaps because of the location of some of the pins! He's been a little more effort that I originally expected, but really only took me about 3-4 evenings worth of stitching... what do you think? Is this something you would like to see as a pattern?

And here he is finished...

This is the back of the little purse and you can see the quilting stands out a lot more now. It is designed as a key holder, or key purse. The large ring has some small keyrings attached for keys and then you can either put a little bit of change inside the purse, or even slip the keys inside to keep them safe.

The body of the frog is stitched to the top of the lilypad, but his front feet are not stitched down and his back legs are pushed in so they are 3D and stitched only along the feet.

Frog progress

I'm working on putting together the lilypad now while I think on this frog. It was harder to put together than expected again, with a bit of hand sewing. I constructed the feet seperately via machine which worked really well, but then was short circuited on how to put it together with the body and ended up hand sewing the feet to the body pieces. I'm not 100% sure how this will turn out and might have a bit more of a play around with the construction. Any ideas?

The lilypad got a dose of machine quilting and I'm a lot happier with it, but still have to try machine sewing the whole lot. I'm currently putting in a zip by hand which I think will give a better finish than if I'd machine stitched it. Actually, I already put it in once, but got it thr wrong way around so all of last nights stitching was undone... It is half way in again. I'd better get back to it!

Lilypads

This is the start of a new project which is hopefully going to turn out nice enough to be a present. If it turns out well it will also be a pattern for the Happy Bobbin shop too.

So far we have two lilypads and a foot. I bet you can guess where this is going. I had to hand sew the lilypads as the machine really didn't work out for them, but maybe I was too impatient with trying to stuff it with the batting. Instead I slowly worked my way around, folding over both sides of the fabric with the batting inside and hand sewing the edge.

The foot worked well with the machine and I put the batting in with a pair of tweezers. I might have to give those lilypads another go on the machine just to see if it could have been done...

The lilypad with the paisly pattern showing has some light quilting as veins on the leaf. I don't think I'm going to worry about the other as it will be covered by a little frog, but we'll see. That's all for the preview for now. I finally remembered to give you all a little progress shot of what I'm working on for a change!!

Rudolph has a Red Nose

I have this little guy all ready for Christmas. I created my own plush pattern from a mash up of a couple of different patterns I found online - simplified, added hooves, made up the ears... all sorts of changes that make it uniquely my own and I had a lot of fun doing it.

The head is version three. I had lots of issues getting the proportions right, but thankfully I only had to do those antlers once as they required a lot of patience to turn them right way around. I was really happy that the body looked so great first time.

Of course, nothing is complete lately without at least one LED light, so little Rudolph's nose really lights up red when you turn on a switch hidden underneath his collar.

Jack-o-Lantern Completed!

Isn't it cute! I think I am addicted to LEDs. I was so excited to put the LEDs into this project that I finished it in 2 days. Conductive thread is a really cool thing to work with. It is just like a normal heavy cotton, like an embroidery thread, and yet once you have hooked everything together correctly it does amazing things like run these two LEDs.

The eye shape was designed just so there would be a little orange area to mount the LEDs on. I really like this project... I think I like this more than the robot project, though that was pretty cool too.

The circuit for these little 6" projects is quite simple so if you are new to electronics and want to have a play with conductive thread one of these little projects would be perfect for you. It would also be great as a holiday project for the kids. I think the instructions I've written out are fairly clear, but you could always leave me a comment or send me an email if you get stuck with it.

What else can I put LEDs into?... I really do think I'm addicted!!

Halloween Pumpkin

Aww its a scary pumpkin!! My work in progress this week - an original design. I was going to machine applique him, but I think spending a bit more time hand sewing with the needle-turn method is going to make him look a bit neater. I hope to finish him this weekend so perhaps I'll have another picture in a couple of days. That smile is about 4" across.

Electrotextile Robot

Remember back to these humble beginnings? I ran into several snags along the way with this project but it is finally finished. Firstly, I managed to completely lose the prototype. Yep, it's gone! I turned my sewing room upside down looking for it, then the rest of the house and even the shed was thoroughly searched, but either I didn't do a good enough search job or I took this somewhere and it didn't come home.

The second snag was in the making itself. I put together a little robot design to use three LEDs and then stitched it together with conductive thread - it didn't work. So I had to research all my basic electronics knowledge and relearn how to hook up multiple LEDs. Two days later, after cutting away all my conductive thread and soldered the pieces together multiple times I finally had it working. This was not without issues as well... and melting the plastic around the battery holder a little, some swearing, and lots of resoldering!

After finally getting it right and drawing up a circuit diagram for the pattern I stitched it up in conductive thread. The conductive thread is really great to work with. It is thicker than standard cotton thread, more like a stiff embroidery thread, so I had hardly any tangles. It also made the circuit come together a lot quicker than my experiences in soldering it. I tried to be very thorough in the pattern instructions so that if you have no experience in electronics but still want to give this a go it should be beginner friendly!

Long story short: The robot is finally complete and the result is very cute!!


For the next week you can get 10% off on the pattern and/or kit by using the coupon code GOGOROBOTLED

Suggestions for new designs welcome. Head over to the Happy Bobbin blog for the chance to win a 50% off coupon for your suggestion!

Steampunk Blocks

I was going to start quilting my steampunk blocks so I could move on to joining them in the quilt as you go method, however when I laid them out I realised that I didn't like the look of it with only 9 blocks so I decided to add three more designs to make the quilt longer. The three extra blocks are complete so now I need to psyche myself up for quilting these again. Because this is a step into the unknown I am procrastinating a little...

Space Invader Wall Hanging

Another finish today and I must say I didn't realise I've been putting this one off since 2009! Terrible!!

This project had been quilted, but still needed trimming and binding. It took most of the day today to get it squared and trimmed due to its odd size and then to work out how big to make my hanging tabs for the top and bottom. A little tweaking was needed there because I made them a little too big and because the hanging is supported top and bottom it was floppy in the middle.

Once I got it hanging correctly I tried out the machine binding tutorial I mentioned back in 2009 as well but hadn't tried due to a lack of a suitable project. It went reasonably well with only a couple of errors which I had to go back and fix. The good thing about black on black is noone will notice!

I think it looks pretty good hanging on the door. It is replacing a lace curtain which we usually cover with a solid curtain in Winter as a lot of heat escapes through the glass window in the door.

If you like space invaders you can get a pattern for piecing the red invader free. I'll be working on patterns for the other guys and the tank gun soon!

Circus Tent Quilt Complete

This one is finished! The quilting process took a little longer as I used masking tape as a guide for my quilting which took a while to stick around all the hexagons. It gave me even spacing between the piecing seams and my quilting. I needed to quilt within 10" according to my batting so I've left the quilting fairly open with the largest area being about 7".

The back shows the quilting lines even better. I selected a white thread so that it would blend in best on the animal print fabric and lightly contrast with the "circus tents".

The binding is the same dark patterned fabric as the blue hexagon which gave a nice contrast with the green back and complimented all the colours on the front. I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out. I was hoping to get it done in a week, but 2 weeks is a pretty good effort to turn out a completed quilt! :)

Easter Chocolate Containers

With Easter just around the corner I thought I would mention something about those little plastic chocolate containers you might receive this Sunday. The two containers pictured above were from chocolates such as Lindt and Fererro Roche that are sometimes gifted at Easter and Christmas. If you're lucky enough to get a deep container like these they're perfect for your sewing supplies!

I use one for my safety pins (I leave them all open so I can just pin them straight in so sticking your hand in there is usually an adventure!) and one for my binding clips. I have another which had a broken lid so I use that to throw in small items such as a pen, thread I use all the time, a few needles and anything else I'm using that I dont' want to roll off the table.

They're really handy containers so make sure you save a few because you never know what kind of sewing trinkets you might need to store!

Little Hexagons

Now an update on the one inch hexagons! Last time we really talked about these was December 20... Three months later and I've completed 3 more diamonds, taking my total up to 6 diamond blocks completed.

I've taken a picture here with them placed so they're touching to get an idea of the overall look and with one a little seperate so you can see the individual block as well. The white threads you can see are my basting stitches which hold the paper templates in place. These will be removed eventually.

I really enjoy making these when I want something mindless to do. I have a heap of hexagons already basted, so I baste a few triangles, then sew them to the hexagons on two sides to form diamonds, then sew 9 of these together to make the larger 3x3 diamond blocks. Being a 1" hexagon means that not only is the flat of the hexagon 1 inches long, but the equilateral triangle also has 1 inch sides as well. They're quite tiny!

I'm aiming for this to be a true charm quilt with every hexagon fabric being different. Once I get to the end I plan to slip in one duplicate (if I don't accidentally do this in the mean time...) just like I've read should be done on charm quilts so it makes it like a hide and seek game. Here is a little history about charm quilts.

I started this quilt on August 31 2011... this is going to take a while to finish!!

Top Done!

I got there in the end! The quilt top is together and is an almost square of approximately 47"x49". As you can see, I went with the decision to make it a square quilt instead of a rectangle like the pattern. I put the hexagons together without too much trouble though there is a little bit of a ripple in it which I am hoping will not be noticable after quilting. To bring it all together and balance the colours as well as increase the size I added strips of colour as a border using some of the left over fabric. Here it is:

Problem after problem...

I've had multiple troubles up to this point and just when I thought I was on track another issue. I said last time I was disappointed by the lack of instructions, well it has pulled me up again and perhaps it is partly my fault for not studying the photo and perhaps drawing my own block diagram... not that it should be necessary to do this with instructions from a book!

The first picture is the placement the blocks should have according to the book. Can you see my issue? I sewed my traingles together to form half hexagons along the flat, not the point. The entirity of the instructions you get for this part is "pin and sew the centre seam of the triangles together in spot/stripe pairs and then in sets to form six full hexagons and four half hexagons"... I guess I choose a different "centre seam" to what they did since I paired them on the upright edge, not the diagonal edge, and therefore as you can see from my half hexagons... they're not the right shape.

In addition to this I redid my blue block so that all my centre small hexagons were going the same way, with flat sides lined up to flats. Now after examining the quilt picture again I can see why I made an error on my blue block because they made the same error themselves and didn't fix it! Most of their blocks are matched flat side to flat, but the top left block which you tend to look at first is not, and they made the same mistake in the corners too where one is on point and the rest show flats. Have a look at the photo and see for yourself!! What I should have done is fussy cut my blocks so the points would be up, not the flat...

So what I have now are 6 blocks, with the central hexagon lined up so that everything is right way up only if they're positioned as per the second picture at the top there. If I line them up as per the book then the central blocks are slightly skewed... and I know it is a baby quilt, but my OCD streak still wants it to be perfect!!

At this point I'm tempted to make it square and align it so my blocks are the right way up and not like the book because I'm just not liking how it looks in my picture 2 up there with all the colour very central. That means it would end up being about 110cm square (43") and something like this...

I've been contemplating this for about an hour now (or really since last night when I discovered the issue) so I think it is time to take myself for a walk and try and decide what to do so I can get this project moving again. What would you do??