Giving Up On Perfection

This past week has been a busy, busy week for sandwiching and pinning quilts. First, I sewed together three 'frankenbats' out of leftover strips of batting. All because the roll of batting is getting very skinny and also perhaps in an effort to be frugal? Whatever. I have very mixed emotions about the results.

The Baby Girl Quilt

On the baby girl quilt, I didn't notice the batting shifting at all. All the wonk in this quilt is because there was just too much ease in the long coin strips. It was something I was quite prepared to deal with and after machine quilting 'in the ditch' along every seam, I came back and hand quilted every other coin and just inside the silhouette flower. I'm satisfied with the results. Just the normal 'I'm sure I could do better, but not terrible either'.

Looking at the applique

The narrow coin strips were the leftovers from my Dried Flowers quilt. I really like the way they add just a little bit of texture to an otherwise plain Jane quilt. The flower was originally going to be a dark charcoal color, but at the last second, I switched the fabric out for this {happier} green grunge fabric. It's a little bit more 'St. Patrick's' than I intended to happen, but overall, it feels like such a sweet quilt. Fingers crossed the mama likes it too! The light gray alphabet fabric on the back and the darker gray polka dot binding fabric were all chosen in an effort to make the quilt feel a bit more modern looking. Not sure how successful I was, but my girls both gave the nod of approval.

Patchwork Triangles is finished!

Anymore, I have a habit of sandwiching and pinning two quilts on the same day. If the dining room table is out of the way, that's my cue to take advantage! I chose a quick finish, Patchwork Triangles, which was started in July of 2018. Somewhere around that time these triangles were cut off from the corners of some improv. blocks I was working with. It seemed fun and interesting to see where this small start could take me and I love how different looking this quilt is than the original make. 

Not my best work...

So... that being said, I don't love how terrible my machine quilting ended up turning out. Three major no no's contributed and I take full responsibility. 1. Too many bias cut triangles. 2. Batting not fitted and sewn together quite as snug and tight as it should have been. 3. Quilt sandwich not pinned nearly good enough. 4. I rushed through the machine quilting. Oh, did I say three things? Well, I so dislike machine quilting that I generally make things worse on myself. My bad.

Still happy the colors though!

You probably find this hard to believe, but I did actually get the seam ripper out and unsew almost five different rows before trying again.*ughh  It's a bad job and yes, rather than toss the entire quilt, I just gritted my teeth and finished up. There will be someone who will like {and probably want} the quilt regardless. I'm calling it a comfort quilt and as such will be perfectly adequate. Will try harder next time I promise.

Great fabrics for the back of a quilt....

Maybe some of you wouldn't have posted about such a quilt, but I do always try to show the good, bad and even the ugly around here. There is this one gal whom I have followed for ages now, though I won't tell you who she is. I absolutely adore how she posts pictures of. Every. Single. Miserable. Looking. Quilt block and/or quilt. She ever makes. It's endlessly fascinating and sorta sweet and endearing. Makes me love her ever so much more. You know why? Because she is genuinely human and not afraid to show the world that she loves her craft regardless of her shortcomings.

I'm sure someone will want this one in spite of the imperfections...

So there you go. That's my quilt round-up for the week. I have one more frankenbat left, but that quilt will be hand quilted so I sorta expect it to turn out fabulous. Hand quilting is usually nicely accommodating like that.  I've never had any trouble whatsoever with pieced battings {while hand quilting} except for the areas where the batting is thicker. So my fingers get a little extra bit of a workout. That's about all that seems different except maybe {occasionally} the stitches being a tiny bit shorter looking on the backside of the quilt in those specific places? What about you? Are there certain things that you've pretty much given up on ideal of *perfection* in your journey of quilting too?