The Quilt That Taught Me Version Control
Half a metre into a queen-size top I made a cutting error I could not undo, and finally understood why I have spent twenty years insisting on commits.
There is no git revert for fabric.
I had cut forty-two half-square triangles at the wrong angle. Not dramatically wrong — three degrees, maybe four, the kind of error invisible in a single block and glaring across a whole top. By the time I noticed, I had sewn eleven blocks.
The part that stung
I could not go back. Not to the last known-good state, not to the moment before the bad cut, not anywhere. The fabric was cut. The only paths available were forward or abandon.
Software has spoiled me completely. Twenty years of being able to ask what did this look like on Tuesday and simply be told.
What I do differently now
- Cut one block first, completely. A test build before committing the batch.
- Photograph every stage. Not sentiment — a change log I can actually consult.
- Keep the offcuts until the top is finished, labelled by fabric.
None of this makes fabric undoable. It just means that when something goes wrong, I can see where it went wrong, which is most of the value a history ever provided.
The quilt
I finished it. The eleven bad blocks went into the back, where the angle reads as intentional if you do not look closely. Nobody has looked closely.
Every quilter I have told this story to has nodded and said of course you kept them. Every programmer has asked why I did not just start over.
Tags
- quilting
- process