Monstrosity

Sometimes, I get myself in over my head (and way over my patience level) with sewing.  (How else am I going to improve though if I don't try new things?)  I had this great idea last fall (Here is the link to the thought process on the creation of this quilt monstrosity.) to design this quilt that had embroidery all over it as well as squares that were pieced together.  It was fun for about 10 minutes and then it became a monstrous amount of work.  Being the person that I am (all type A personality) I forged on with it.

I worked on it from September until about December and then I folded it up and packed it away until BJ and family got out of the house because it really was consuming too much of my time.  Oh, AND, I had found a flaw right in the middle of the quilt.  I had turned one of the embroidery pieces in the wrong direction which pretty much ruined it for me.  (Yeah, more Type A personality going on.)  I had already sewn two rows past that mistake and there was no way I was going back and taking all that stitching out.  (I tend to quilt as I go with each row so that it isn't so bulky when I am quilting.) 

I finished a project last weekend and then found myself fingering the material on the monstrosity quilt.  I  HATE to have unfinished projects cluttering up the back of my mind so I pulled it back out.

Here is a picture of the wall hanging I finished for the bathroom last weekend....it really did come out perfect!  I think I even impressed Tom with this one.  I am improving in my skills all the time and for the most part having a blast with it!

You can see that I even tried a little free motion quilting on the center squares on this one.  I am still nervous about doing that and I need to practice a LOT more.  8-)

So, back to the monstrosity story...

I pulled it out and laid it across the twin in the guest bedroom and realized that I had done enough on it to have it be an additional blanket for that bed.  I finished the quilting process on the last two rows, put the binding on it and wala...it is finished.  It has a lot of minor flaws (all giving it character of course...ha ha ha) and one major one that if you look closely, you can see in a couple of these pictures...

It adds some color to the white bedspread in there.  I might make some curtains for that room out of the burgundy flowered material I had left over.  (I had a LOT of that material left over.)  Not sure why I bought so much of that one...probably just liked it.

The quilt had 99 squares by the time I was finished with it and for those that know BJ...in his words...'tas enuf.

Here is some Max for today...kinda fits in with my theme (in a very loose way...lol)  I like to think I took something that I thought was a failure three months ago and took another look at it and finished it.

"What's Done is Done

By Max Lucado

What do you do with your failures? Could you do it all over again, you’d do it differently. You’d be more patient. You’d control your tongue. You’d finish what you started. You’d get married first. But as many times as you tell yourself, “What’s done is done,” what you did can’t be undone.

That’s part of what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). He didn’t say, “The wages of sin is a bad mood.” Or “The wages of sin is a hard day.” Read it again. “The wages of sin is death.” Sin is fatal.

What do you do? Don’t we all long for a father who will love us? A father who cares for us in spite of our failures? We have that kind of a father. A father whose grace is strongest when our devotion is weakest. Your failures are not fatal, my friend!"

By Grace Alone -

Teresa