DH has joked in the past that every pair of socks that I knit I end up knitting twice. That's a slight exaggeration but I do undo and re-knit a lot of socks.
Now I'm beginning to think that I have carried the same affliction on into my quilting.
Over a year ago I had the brilliant idea that I would make a Family Tree Quilt for our Thirty-Fifth Wedding Anniversary that would celebrate how our family has grown over the years. After searching for a suitable pattern I finally found one I liked.
Armed with fabric and scissors and sewing machine I tried to make it according to the instructions. It looked nothing like the photo that accompanied the pattern. It would appear that my skill for raw edge applique leaves a lot to be desired.
Not to be deterred, and still liking the design, I decided to go with applique where all the edges are turned under. It meant more work but I knew I'd be happier with it in the end.
Part-way through making the more than one hundred leaves that had to be appliqued to the quilt I realised that DH had been rather mute about the quilt. I asked him if he liked it and was told, "Not particularly."
Fortunately, DIL#3 and some of The Most Adorable Granddaughters expressed delight in the quilt so I continued with it. Somewhere down the line I had another brilliant idea: to backstitch the names of every family member onto the quilt.
After struggling for hours with just DH's and my name using white waste canvas on white background (I couldn't see the holes that were meant to guide where the needle went) I decided to backstitch the rest of the family's names freehand. I got as far as half way through the first name and decided that initials would be the way to go. Besides, it would be quicker too.
I can't say that I'm thrilled with how it's all turned out and so now I have another dilemma. I feel that it's needs quilting but I'm reluctant to put too much time and effort into something DH doesn't particularly like and which I'm discovering is now arousing more negative feelings than positive feelings every time I look at it.
I thought big stitch quilting might be a quick solution but it looked out of place on such a small quilt. Traditional hand quilting looks better but I'm wondering how little I can get away with. I have a feeling that I'm going to end up doing a whole lot more than I would like to - particularly at this point in time when I'm discovering that I'm quickly falling out of love with the whole project.
Of course, if I do finish it (remember it was meant to be a gift for DH for our Thirty-Fifth Wedding Anniversary and he doesn't particularly like it and we've already celebrated that anniversary) we'll have the problem of what to do with it. Perhaps there's a dark corner somewhere we can semi hide it?
The plan is to make a pocket on the back that will hold a removable flash memory card that will contain information of ancestry, copies of photos, and digital copies of marriage and birth certificates.
However, I have to finish the quilt first, and frankly, I'm not sure if I can be particularly bothered.
Comments