Sister's Choice Quilts

My interests are quilting, reading, cooking, family, decorating, and matters of style. I post regular quilting tutorials and book reviews of current fiction.

Lots of Ways to Go Wrong

Quilt640

My goal for February has been to reduce my stash, purchase no new fabric, and finish up projects I had started but set aside when something more interesting came along.  Last weekend I dragged these blocks down from the shelf and decided it was time I pieced them together.  The fabric was from a kit called "Seneca Falls" by Moda.  The block design is called "Contrary Wife", one of my favorites (evil grin).   My love for this block pattern must have been the reason I purchased the kit, because half way through piecing I decided I didn’t really care for the colors the designers had chosen.  The blocks are blue, red and cream.  So why on earth did they choose a purple lattice?  And those stretchy woven plaids were leaning and weaving all over the place.  It just wasn’t working for me.

It probably serves me right for buying a kit.  I have a strong enough
sense of the colors I like and how to pull compatible shades together
that it is crazy for me to rely on someone else to do it for me.  The
convenience of a kit is appealing, but I think in my
own case, it is best to follow my instincts and choose my own
fabrics.  In the end I will be happier with my results.

However, I was not about to waste this fabric and the work I had already put into the project.  I told myself that this is one of those homely quilts that will benefit from a fabulous quilting design and turn out better than it deserves. 

I spent hours piecing the lattices and the blocks and when it was all put together I started noticing a few things.  In several blocks I had a half square triangle facing the wrong way.  Two entire blocks were oriented in completely the wrong direction.  It seems that there were a jillion ways to make mistakes with this block, and at every opportunity to go wrong, I had managed to do it.  So I "unsewed", as my sister Kate likes to say. That took a long time.  I do most of my sewing on the weekends, and believe me, that time is precious.  Unsewing is definitely not how I want to be spending my efforts.

Now the blocks are sewn together properly and I am still not loving this quilt.  It may join the ranks of UFOs after all.  All my fellow crafters and quilters out there:  Don’t you just hate it when you put hours of time and a chunk of money into a project and it just doesn’t warm your heart?

10 responses to “Lots of Ways to Go Wrong”

  1. I really like the colors and fabrics in the quilt and that block is one of my favorites as well. I’m sorry to hear it caused you so many headaches and that you still don’t love it. Maybe it’s the perfect thing for a Project Linus or other charitable donation?

  2. I really like the colors and fabrics in the quilt and that block is one of my favorites as well. I’m sorry to hear it caused you so many headaches and that you still don’t love it. Maybe it’s the perfect thing for a Project Linus or other charitable donation?

  5. I love your quilting! I don’t like sewing, but love seeing someone else do it well.
    No matter how much time you put into something, if you don’t love it….well, you just won’t love it later on either.
    But can you imagine how much joy someone else could get from it? That’s what I do when it happens to me. If there is that much work in it, I let it go so someone else will love it.
    I think some women do that with husbands, too. 🙂

  6. I love your quilting! I don’t like sewing, but love seeing someone else do it well.
    No matter how much time you put into something, if you don’t love it….well, you just won’t love it later on either.
    But can you imagine how much joy someone else could get from it? That’s what I do when it happens to me. If there is that much work in it, I let it go so someone else will love it.
    I think some women do that with husbands, too. 🙂

  9. You have said the one thing that warms a quilt designer’s heart . . .that you like to pick out your own colors! Oh, how I love to hear that! But regardless of how funky some colors may seem, in progress, they will just add to this quilt’s “personality” when it is done!
    Lovely quilts & quiltmaking!
    – Bren

  10. You have said the one thing that warms a quilt designer’s heart . . .that you like to pick out your own colors! Oh, how I love to hear that! But regardless of how funky some colors may seem, in progress, they will just add to this quilt’s “personality” when it is done!
    Lovely quilts & quiltmaking!
    – Bren