Oops! First Tear-out of the Quilt

Ready to complete last 6-block unit.

As I described in the previous post, I decided to assemble smaller blocks into 4-block units to then be joined to create the center portion of the quilt top.  Then, those 4-block units would be assembled into ever bigger units to eventually become the quilt top.  This method is different from the more traditional method of assembling the blocks in horizontal rows and, then, joining those rows.

Time to join 12-block unit to
8-block unit just above

As I looked at my design layout on the vertical axis, I found I could make two four-block units and then a six-block unit.  Keep in mind that until this point in the creation of the blocks, I haven't used one single straight pin.  Eleanor Burns' techniques (quiltinaday.com) allow you to assemble blocks with perfect corners most often without the use of pins.

Perfect corners - no pins

Oh, no!  This won't do.

After I had assembled two four-block units along the left side of my design and two six-block units (lower left), I joined the first vertical row to the second vertical row which gave me three units from top to bottom--8-block unit, 8-block unit, 12-block unit.  My first snag came when I joined the middle 8-block unit to the bottom 12-block unit. As you can see in the picture, I got some pretty ugly corners there where the two units came together.  (Also an ugly picture.  Sorry for the blur.)

So, what to do?