One day as I was perusing one of my favorite blogs, The Quilting Edge, I saw a place for tutorials. Wondering why I hadn't looked there before I, I saw one in particular that caught my eye. One she calls, Wonky Circles. That was it - the "design" for the earth fabrics. The instructions were clear and there were excellent pictures. I knew the basic idea and was certain I could do it. I was so excited I dropped everything else and began pulling fabrics to coordinate.
At the end of the first day I noticed the thing was a mess! I wasn't sure whether the fabric combinations were working out, I had not planned any placement of the squares at all and didn't really know where I was going, I couldn't seem to get the right rhythm for sewing the concentric circles. I was feeding the fabric in wrong ( I guess!) and my squares were anything but square! They poofed out in the middle, they had lots of other pooches - frankly, they were crap! That day I was undaunted - if the squares were wonky that was fine, I was going to press them with steam and starch, and trim them down quite a bit anyway. Besides, I would get better by the second day, I was certain. So I just forged ahead and did a lot of seam ripping, and re-sewing, but with joy, with excitement. It would come together, I was certain. I had faith.
However, by the end of the second day I told my husband I was considering throwing all that beautiful fabric in the trash - it stunk. Late in the evening, I began to trim the squares (perhaps I should have waited until the next day?) and they still sucked. I had to trim the things three times to be able to have a uniform size. Then, even though I they looked more like water pouches than quilt squares and despite utter exhaustion, I insisted on pressing, pulling and starching the buggers; after that I still could not stop and I kept trying to arrange the voluminous squares to a pleasing state. And no, I was not zen - there was a lot of banging, pulling and cursing, although I did bring myself back to presence again and again....and again and again. And again.
Finally I forced myself to go to bed at 12:30. As I did, I noticed all the squares being blown off the design wall by my ceiling fan. I did not care, because I had decided to trash the entire thing. I was just accepting what was. And what was was that it was not. Working out, that is.
Otherwise occupied so I couldn't work the next day, and having decided to chuck it all anyway, I was serene. Oh well, it has to happen sometime - not everything works out, I figured. I was sad about the waste of those delicious fabrics but "OH WELL," I was letting go. Still, I could not resist checking one last time on The Quilting Edge just to see if there was something I had missed. As I sighed and stared at the perfection of Marianne's work, I noticed she had put sashing on her piece. I am normally not a fan of sashing, but the thought crept into my brain that sashing might be a way to save the quilt. Just MIGHT be, no guarantee.
So I decided to try it - give it one more chance - what the heck - I really adored the colors and fabrics. I had even (surprisingly) cleverly taken a photo of the arrangement I sort of liked with my iphone. With the promise to myself of remaining calm and present no matter what, I began to add sashing, cutting the sashing exactly to the correct lengths and making it fit. And to my surprise - it began to come together! By the end of the day, I had most of it done and OMG! It looked good. And even, dare I say - SQUARE!
So the thing worked after all. I won't say it is perfect, because it ain't. But it is - well, I'll let you judge for yourself:
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| I deliberately put in a large photo so as not to hide the imperfections - they exist, but I think they actually go well with the overall feel of the thing! |
For me, the answer is YES! It could be saved. And I am so very
GRATEFUL.
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