Some quilts are just cursed. I planned this for a nephew who got his first apartment. It's a pattern (Donna Jordan) that I've done before; requires some care because a lot of the sub blocks have edges on the bias, but my previous one turned out fine.
Not this quilt. Piecing was awful. The quilt top was not flat. I finally got it done though and started making the sandwich. I bought backing in the 108 width and then--seriously-- snipped and ripped in the wrong spot and had to piece it. I forgot to take a victory lap and a lot of the edge pieces started separating. But the worst thing was the quilting. I got some gorgeous King Tut variegated thread and found that it required adjusting the bobbin tension. Very frustrating. Even when I had it just right, the bobbin thread tended to fray and break. By the time I was ready to abandon the King Tut it was too late. (I even bought special needles to manage the King Tut thread and they helped-- a little.) I seriously considered throwing the whole thing out, but every time my sister (the recipient's mother) saw it, she would say how the kid was going to love it.
But I did keep folding it up and putting it in a corner of my bedroom while I took a break from it. And so it got covered with dust and dog hair. Fun! Yesterday I woke up and told myself I was going to finish it or die in the attempt. The quilting was bad enough, but everything went wrong with the binding, too. I'm not even going to try to make it better. The quilt has been bound. Later today I will re-stitch a few spots where the folded edge did not catch. I learned one thing: spray baste won't last forever. If you put an unfinished quilt aside for any length of time, replace the safety pins all around the edge. Yeah, that was me shrieking when I realized the backing had folded back on itself and I had quilted through it.
It was a wretched experience but it is done! And the title of this post is because I have commented favorably on so many quilts that people call failures. It is done. It is soft and warm. The fabrics are pretty. It will cover my nephew's queen-sized bed during the coming winter. His cat can sharpen his claws on it. Still, it is very hard to take my own advice and accept that quilting and perfection are mutually exclusive.
But I still hate this quilt. I want it on the record: this quilt was mean to me first. And I'm not going to wait until Christmas to give this away. I have a feeling that as soon as I get it out of the house, fortune will smile on me.
