As My Boss Once Told Me, "Nice Try, but Not Even Close."

My sewing machine got pulled out today, and I ended up working on my 2014 County Fair quilt square. Remember my prototype?

Today I pulled out the "real" fabrics from the fair kit and my notes from last time and started again. This is what I got:

 I know...civil war era fabrics. I find them depressing too. But isn't the block beautiful?

 I was very careful with all the inset seams, and to keep me honest, here's the backside:

Honestly, my favourite part of the block is the pinwheel formed on the wrong side at the very center of the block.

It should impress the pants off the judges. This is how you not only handle eight seams coming together at one point, but how you make it stylish too.

But then I measured the final block and it's 12".

It's supposed to finish at 12" which means it should currently measure 12.5"

This makes me sad.

My prototype was alright, but apparently I made my seams a little too big this time around. (Or cut the pieces a little small. Or ???) Since I got it done a few months ahead of time, I have time to decide whether I'm going to submit it anyway and try my luck for a ribbon. (Not very satisfying as it will be rejected without mercy for not meeting the very clear size requirement, and won't be able to be used in the quilt whether they want to or not.) Or figure out some way to fix it, even though I don't have enough fabric to do it again.

Part of the idea of doing this block today was to get it "off the pile" and clean up one thing. But now it's back on the pile. :sigh: