Chain Cha-ain Cha-a-a-a-ain

Been matching and sewing in spurts of 56, small neutral units sewn to longer dark units, getting them all sewn before turning on the iron.

I don't like to keep the iron plugged in all day for a little ironing here, a little there, unless the project absolutely requires it. Even with the auto-off feature, it still draws power unnecessarily. So all these are hanging about waiting for the ironing marathon to follow.

To keep things straight, I stick each pair's tape ID above the chain. (The tapes on the door frame in the picture above correspond to the final chain, currently piled on the ironing board.)

After running 56 1-1/2" pairs under the needle, the 2" leader/ender squares look ginormous in comparison!

In the pairing-up-and-rearranging-the-logs process, an ominous realization began to dawn: I made an assumption months back that I never, ever double-checked. As is my wont, I blithely assumed that of course I was correct in my thinking, and left it at that. Seems to be the theme song of my sewing--I know I've heard it before! (To add to the ridiculousness of my position: I've never made a log cabin block before. Zero experience.)

The assumption I made was this: the final two logs would be of different fabric families--one neutral, one dark. It didn't seem to matter how long I played with pieces showing me the truth of the block:

All those unplaced squares--see the outermost light edges? Sure you see them, Carolyn, but are you looking?

I continued to be blinded by my belief I couldn't possibly have made a mistake. (I guess Hubris is more fitting a name for this project than I originally thought!)

So I transferred all my original numbers into the spreadsheet, which, GIGO-like, spit out the instructions to cut 24 logs, 12.5" long, from the dark fabrics.

There they are, as ordered, on the right.^^

It wasn't a deal breaker, of course. I still have plenty of neutrals from which to cut two dozen 12.5" strips, and it'll give me an opportunity to bring in some of the fabrics that had been introduced later in my cutting marathon (so were missing from the longer logs). Also, those dark logs will be used in future projects. But still!

Fourteen hundred sixteen logs were quite enough to begin with. Now I'm up to 1440 logs cut, but I'm not going to change the title of the previous post.