aarrgggg!   how annoying!

BUT, it's amazing how helpful cameras are for finding those sorts of problems.  You can stare at your project on the design wall until you're cross-eyed and never see anything out of place.  Take a photo?  Bingo!  It pops right out at you.

As you said, luckily, you found the problems so early!

Good news, temporary disastrous news.

The good news: I finished the first panel of my 2021 Forever Project: A Gathering of Quails.  Horray!

The problem with this one is that I didn't realize how *close* to the left-hand side that first quail was going to end up.  There is barely a seam allowance worth of fabric.    I obviously wasn't thinking ahead.

The pattern calls for *all* the panels to be this long and wide.  They alternate with narrow rows of appliqued eggs.  But this results in more of a personal sized throw, so what I have planned on doing is doubling this panel and adding more rows.  Since all the birds are individual, I can certainly mix and match the adults and the chickies so that it looks like all new birds.

Since the above panel will look like it's been shoved to the left, if used as-is, I think I'm gonna put the extra length on that left side, which will give me space to place the next bird at a proper distance.   I'm pleased with it so far.

Then the temporary bad news.   As I was admiring my work  :-)   I started looking around for the rest of the background fabric in order to cut the next strip.  Ummmmm ... where was it?  Not in that pile (that I was sure it was in), not in that pile, not in any pile around my sewing room.  I even looked in my stash tote of off-white/ecru fabrics, just in case I was foolish enough to return that fabric to the general population.  Nope, wasn't there either.

By now, I'm beginning to think that I've put the fabric in some Really Safe Place.  I'm beginning to think that ... drats .. will I need to RE-DO this panel with a different background fabric???  I absolutely do NOT want to that!

Then, I start straightening up the batiks and hand-dyed fabrics that I'm using for this project.  The batiks are in a 12" square project box.  As I was lifting the fabrics in the box .. BINGO!  there it was!  Oh, hallelujah!  All the background fabric, very neatly folded, at the bottom of the project box.  Whew!  Double whew!  I was soooooo relieved!  :-)

The next panel of the background fabric as now been cut, so I can move on to that.  :-)    Did I say .. whew?!  :-)

I would like to blame the evil gremlin that flipped my blocks sideways for hiding your background fabric but I don't think the gremlin's arms have that long a reach ....

Don't underestimate the skill and talents of those gremlins.  :-)

Putting things in the super SAFE place always spells disaster!  Not to be found until after a long search!  Lol...

You found them at the right time.  They can be easily fixed.  Frustrating when something like that slows you down.    We have all been there.

Pirate (PIRATE_SR) said:

The next panel of the background fabric as now been cut, so I can move on to that.  

And the remainder of that fabric was returned to the box with the batiks and you will remember where it is?  The term "safe place" is not specific enough to recover whatever you put there.

In the meantime (while you are working on your appliqued birds), I was at the quilt shop today (the ONE quilt shop in my city - but it's a nice one!) -- and I saw these Riley Blake "Pirate Tales" fabrics.  SO cute.  There are one or two focus fabrics, most most of the rest are small-scale novelties (which is one of the things I was looking for).  I didn't get any of them, but I might have to go back and get a 1/4 yard of those little sharks.  So cute.  LOL  

https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/Fabric/Current-Collections/Pirate-Tales 

Hey Sandy!  Look what I have on my frame!  I really didn’t steal it and it will get back to you before he gets married!

JulietDeltaOscar (fixin2quilt) said:

and I saw these Riley Blake "Pirate Tales" fabrics.

I think I have some of the skull-and-crossbones on black.  :-)