:( Unhappiness is ...

... gray overcast skies,

waking up with an achy hip,

family drama,

and then there's this:

"This" means I will need to take off all four of the borders it took me all week to sew on. Sew on correctly, I thought, ha. If you can't see what's wrong, the corner unit is supposed to match up to the side borders but its off by quite a bit so no amount of stretching or easing would work. Trimming or sewing the seams deeper would only make the squares obviously smaller than the others so all that is left (unless someone can offer me a miracle fix) is to pick out all of the border seams and try again.

I wanted to share this frustration with you just to show some of the newer quilters and the people who read this blog just for the eye candy that not all always goes well and perhaps not all is even fixable.

This morning when I saw what I'd done, I really wanted to wad the whole quilt top into a ball, stuff it into a grocery bag, stomp on it a few times and toss it onto my P.I.G. (Projects In Grocery bag) pile. However, I hate to give up so it will not be a P.I.G., at least not today.

Since then, I've pounded out some of my frustration and unhappiness on the treadmill and I've decided to pick out the border seams and try again. I'm going to "treat" myself to a new seam ripper and go to it tomorrow. Believe it or not, I've still been using the seam ripper I got for my high school home ec sewing class until now because I can't find another one I like. Those of you who know me can calculate how old that ripper must be! I'm just amazed it still cuts thread.

Since I've told you what unhappiness at my house is and I don't want to leave anyone in that frame of mind, go over to Loft Creations to see what happiness is!

Want to see one of my P.I.G.S.?

OK, not this kind of pig! Sorry, I found this photo on the internet and just couldn't resist.

Here is one of my P.I.G.S. (Project In a Grocery Sack) Of course, someone might argue its really a Flimsie, which it is, but since its also not finished I'm calling it one of my P.I.G.S. Its been laying on an antique washstand in our bedroom for years because I haven't gotten around to having it machine quilted. One clue why it isn't quilted yet is that I dislike sewing together backings for large quilts. You can see the backing fabric under the quilt top in the photo.

I've always wanted to take beautiful photos of quilts hanging on a wash line gently blowing in the breeze. As you can see, its just a little too breezy in Kansas this morning. By the way, we're expecting winds of 20-30 miles per hour today which is not terrible but since its so dry, the fire risk is high.

Here's a photo of the quilt top taken inside. Its a large queen size and I'd originally thought of using this on our bed which probably will still happen if I ever get it to a machine quilter. I've been saving the border fabric for years and finally used most of it on this quilt.

A few more photos of the scrappy nine patches. Some of the fabric was old when I made the quilt. All of it is older now!


This past week I spent quite a bit of time at the hospital with my mother. She's back at her home but between the two of us, we have enough appointments to keep us busy! Thanksgiving seems to be right around the corner too. Its looking like I won't reach my goal of finishing all the full clamshell diamonds this month but that's OK. I'll check back in when I've actually accomplished some quilting!