Last week when I posted the Falcon with it's little broken wing problem, Katie posted a great question that I thought would benefit many readers:

"How are you going to fix the wing? Will you have to re sew all the seams in sequence that follow the wing fix? Is there a good way to go back in and fix one segment in the middle of the block if you don't see the error until all the pieces numbered after the error are sewn? I finished the doe and then saw that I left a hole in one of the hoofs where the fabric wasn't big enough to fully cover the section. All the seams around it are sewn and look fine. Thank you."

Let's start with my wing fix and then I'll specifically point out what my plan would be to fix Katie's little problem with her Doe.

Here's our broken wing. You can see where piece D4 was just completely missed, which left the brown fabric from D1 left there making the wing look like it's sticking out below where it should be. I gathered my tools: seam ripper, small scissors and the replacement piece of fabric.

Looking at the pieces, I found the path of least resistance to get to the piece that needed to go in. I seam ripped the G section on the right away from the CDEF group on the left, only about 1/2" past the next seam I need to take out.

I then ripped the seam that connects the CD group from the EF group, again only about 1/2" past the seam I need to fix.

The final seam ripping separated C and D, again just about 1/2" from where I need to sew the missed piece on, fully exposing the area we need to sew on the new piece. Fold back any pieces that are in your way and secure them with pins.

Place the new piece of fabric in the same way you would if you were just getting to this step for the first time. Sew the seam and trim the allowance, then press forward as normal.

Trim the outside edge seam allowances.

Now re-sew the groups back together, starting with re-sewing section C to section D. Next, re-sew the section connecting CD to EF. Finally, re-sew CDEF to G.

Complete! Total time was about 30 minutes to fix and well worth it.

Below we can see Katie's litte doe hoof is missing a tiny corner.

From another photo I found I know that this is the farthest right hoof. I would begin by ripping the horizontal seam from the right side of the block to at least 1/2" past the last seam we need to work with as pointed out by the white arrow below.

Next, I would rip the seams on the right and left side of the leg to at least 1/2" above the hoof seam.

Third, remove the small background piece under the hoof.

Finally, remove the hoof fabric that doesn't fit.

The final steps would be to replace the hoof fabric with a piece that fits, re-sew the background piece on, re-sew the seams on the right and left of the leg and finally re-sew the horizontal piece under the hoof.

I hope this is helpful information. Good luck and happy sewing!

Forest Abstractions Quilt Along - Fixing A Block Tutorial