Far From Perfect--But [Finally] Finished!

Six blocks were left from a king-sized quilt, so I decided [in November of 2012] to create a wall-hanging to compliment the quilt.

Our niece, Susan, whose hand quilting is exquisite, brought me a vintage oval hoop on a stand and shared some hints on hand quilting.

I thought I would be able to do it rather nicely.

I became discouraged with my uneven stitches and relegated the piece, still in the hoop to various corners where the cats pulled at the batting.

I felt reproached by my lack of competence.

The 'work not in progress' was moved to the stone house in September.

It looked rather nice in a corner of my 'study'--almost as if I intended to take up my  needle and hone my skills.

When we began showing the stone house we decided that we needed to de-clutter.

My stash of quilting fabric, my sewing 'tools' and the quilting stand were moved to the farmhouse.

I discovered that much of my time there was waiting time: being there to make a meal for Jim; being available to go along to the home building supply store, to hold the end of a measuring tape or a length of PEX waterline.

There were hours when I was restless, so I determined to finish the wall hanging.

At first I sat near a temporary work lamp, hitching my chair about, trying to keep my work 

out of the shadows.

I was wearing a pair of drug-store reading glasses, waiting for new prescription lenses after cataract surgery.

Eventually I had my new spectacles, the electric lights were up and running in the kitchen and dining area of the farmhouse.

I found it quite soothing to pull my chair close to the warmth of the wood stove and poke my needle into the fabric.

I vowed that no matter how crooked my stitches, I wouldn't pick them out.

That was a promise I couldn't keep! 

While there are obviously many crooked or uneven stitches, I did back up and redo many.

I don't feel that my skills improved.

Sometimes I could go along making neat, fairly small stitches.  Too often my stitches were discouragingly large and untidy.

Lighting seemed to be an issue, as did the flexibility of my fingers--when I had been holding a paint brush or working outdoors, my fingers balked at finer use.

Still, the wall-hanging is finished!

It has been embellished with cat hair--by Nellie who wanted to be part of the photos when I spread the piece on my work table.

I am impatient with all learning curves.

I am not satisfied with my amateurish results.

I fear that anyone looking at this may conclude I was experimenting with 

'big-stitch' quilting.

More than an hour of stitching is conducive to a 'kink' in the neck!

At the end of the day, I have to say I enjoyed finishing this piece.

I suspect I will attempt another.

I may learn not to apologize for a less than perfect finished project!