News Flash! Seam Ripper Saves Life of Loomis Quilter/Skater!

Ripping out 57 1/2 inch seams is no fun! Yesterday, I sat at one of my favorite local haunts, The Flower Farm Nursery and Cafe, with my very cool lighted seam ripper, taking out the seams in the ice skating/Christmas quilt. Why? The verticals rows ended up a full inch longer than the sashing. I cannot for the life of me figure out why this happened. I am determined to fix this problem today as my quilting class was cancelled :( so I have time to work this out. 

I recall from my beginning piecing class how to adjust seams to solve this dilemma. So that's what I will do. I love the look of this piece and don't want to throw in the towel. Problem is that I don't have any more of the sashing fabrics. I could use a different fabric, but it would really change the 'feel' of the quilt top. What to do, what to do? Yet another quilting challenge to be overcome. 

Have been scouring the Web for skating dresses for Worlds. There are a number of eBay sellers in China who make competition dresses for very reasonable prices, but the shipping is $25.00. I bid on one dress and am contemplating another pending approval from my best skating buddy (she has great taste in skating dresses). 

I decided for certain that I am also going to compete in dance (the Willow Waltz and Hickory Hoedown) with a pro from another rink who took me through my first ice dance test. Did the dances yesterday in my lesson and was pleased that I still remembered them, despite the fact that since I passed my Dance 5 tests I have not skated them. So now I am competing 4 events. I think that's enough. 

Started to work on the USFS Adult Bronze freestyle test. Great fun! Off to skate. Onward.