I have come to the happy conclusion that creating is something that has to happen on a daily basis for me. Even if it's just sewing a few felt leaves or sitting down to hand-stitch the binding on a quilt, my heart is happier when I have something to make in my hands.
There hasn't been a lot of that kind of time in my world for a while.
But last weekend I was able to finish this quilt that has had a lot of sitting time in the "unfinished projects" pile. It was my first attempt at making a full-size quilt and I was so dismayed with it once I cut it into blocks. The corners didn't meet as well as they should and I felt as though the whole thing was just generally crooked. I distinctly remembering standing in my craft room looking at the pile of blocks and thinking, "I can't believe I just wasted all that material. This is a disaster." It was such a letdown after my high hopes and anticipation of making something of this magnitude.
So I folded up all the blocks that had been sewn into strips, stacked them in a haphazard pile and used them as a cushion for my sewing chair. {heh}
After sitting upon it for approximately four years, I began to wonder if perhaps I could salvage the poor thing and give it a more noble calling in life than seeing the tail-end of the seamstress in this house.
Last week in the cold, desperate for a crafting project I could actually finish in a short period of time (I needed some instant creation gratification!) I started in with the cutting mat and the geometric side of my brain, piecing it together in a way that would not look so ... wonky.
As I worked on it, I was reminded of something I find myself telling August quite a bit of late. When frustration on a project or any of his creations sets him into a funk, I tell him this: "Grampa Rog always says that the mark of a true carpenter is not how well he constructs, but how well he can fix his mistakes."
Well ... this little quilt gave me lots of opportunities to practice this advice. Ahem.
Besides her certain 'wonkiness', I discovered that she had several places where somehow, the fabric had been cut with the rotary cutter. Huh? (I have no solid evidence so I'm going to guess this was the result of a sleep-deprived cutting incident.) Voila - appliqued flowers!
When I got ready to bind the quilt, I realized I had used a piece of the material I had saved for the binding for a hot pad. Whoops! So, a splashy addition to the binding is the answer! (It's really one of my favorite parts.)
And for the backing? Um, I didn't have any yardage that big for the back so I dug into my vintage sheet stash and found the perfect mustard stripes!
And that, my friends, is how my little neglected quilt-top became a rather snappy ... and finally, square ... quilt that is just the perfect size to snuggle under.