--Lia here. I used to be a regular. I've resubscribed at the moment because I have a question and a warning.
Is there a website online that lists errors in quilt patterns, someplace where, if you find an error in the math or directions for a quilt, you can let others know about it?
I'm working on a quilt. I think it's quite cool. It's based on floor tiles in the Moorish Palace, the Alhambra, in Grenada, Spain. The grid is 60 degrees, not the 90 degree blocks I'm used to. The pattern is in _Quilting Illusions_ by Celia Eddy.
The directions clearly say that you need ONE triangular block made exactly the same to fit together into hexagons that form the quilt. The illustrations show you how to draft that ONE block. Uh-uh. Only when you get around to making it and putting the pieces together do you discover that you need TWO blocks, the one shown, and its mirror image. That's not at all apparent when you look at the diagram and read the directions carefully.
I'm not normally a stickler. For that matter, I don't normally depend on the directions that much. I usually look at the diagram, glance at the directions, figure out how I'm going to make the quilt based on my own favorite methods, don't worry about how much fabric the pattern tells me I'm going to need because I'm glad to buy extra and Heaven knows there's enough fabric around here anyway. I wouldn't be raising a fuss over a little typo, but this error could be serious. You could have someone making 54 blocks one way when she really needed 26 of the one illustrated and 26 cut and sewn differently. There's no way to switch them after they've been sewn.
Working in 60 degrees in different for me, and the original and mirror image thing isn't readily apparent from the diagram. (Before anyone thinks I just missed it, when I got to the point where I was having trouble, I called Jim in, Jim the spatial and visual genius, and asked him to fit the pieces together so they matched the diagram. It took him several minutes of fiddling around before he came to the same conclusion I did. You just don't see it unless you study it and are looking for it.)
I'd call this a significant error. I'd like to save quiltmakers some grief, but I don't know how to let quiltmakers know. There's an address for the publisher (Barron's educational series) at the front of the book, and I'll write to them, but I thought I'd ask here for other ideas on how to get the word out.
--Lia