Quilt Stories - Snowflake Mystery Quilt 2016

This is the saga of one of my UGLY quilts :-)  If you are a follower, you already know that I took my first official quilting class in Spring 2008  (which resulted in completing this sampler quilt in 2013!)

Well... anyway...... in 2007 or 2008.... I do forget which! ...  I decided to do a one day mystery quilt from Planet Patchwork.  I can't find it on the site any more... so I can't tell you anything for sure.   Except that I decided to do it.   And I did :-)

This is a fearless quilt....  I had NO CLUE about anything.  Except I did know how to sew :-)   But I used all different color threads.  And I knew nothing about quarter-inch seams, or blocking blocks... or making them FLAT... or anything.

I didn't take photos of my work back then.... but I did the blocks and I put them together and I folded it up and put it away.  Because - like all the patterns back then.  AFTER all the instructions on piecing..... it said.... "Quilt as desired"

I have always hated that phrase.  Since - especially then - I am mostly self-taught.... there is NO INSTRUCTION in the sentence.. "Quilt as desired."

So the only thing to do - was fold it up and put it away.  And sometimes pull it out and look at it.

I decided that this year I would figure out a way to finish it.  I had some of the original fabric... so added a border.

And then I sandwiched it ....   and couldn't figure out what to do next.  And decided to just go for it!  I got some ideas from Christa Watson in her Machine Quilting With Style book.... and decided to be a little bit random.  My thought was to start in one corner and quilt in white - making something like rays from the stars.  

Which left me with lopsided snowballs and stars with random white quilt lines running all over the place.   And it looked horrible (to me) but I took it as a great space to learn about machine quilting in general and MY machine.

And then I remembered my favorite bit of advice.... if you don't like the way your quilting looks - quilt some more :-)

So - for the finished product, I quilted beside every random line of stitching so they are in pairs... (which kind of makes it look that I planned it - no matter how bad it looks..tee-hee)

Anyway..... it is done!  I pulled it out this summer when the grands were visiting and my granddaughter - after locating a few spots that needed a patch! - told me how beautiful my FROZEN quilt was and how she thought it was perfect for pretending to be Elsa.....

And, after all.... isn't that the kind of thing that makes a quilt beautiful?

I always recommend following through on your terrible projects..  It honors your work...  It shows your progress...  and that is what quilting is anyway.

LOVE, not perfection.