Mishaps Happen - How I Lost and Regained My Quilting Confidence

I was starting to feel more confident. I had been quilting for about a year. I had made quite a few table runners and one over-sized lap quilt. I was at the Quilt Basket and Creations, another LQS and I found fabric that was begging to come home with me. I fell in love the moment I laid eyes on it, and honestly this fabric has haunted me ever since. 

Fresh Air by Chez Moi for Moda

Thank you - Happy Zombie for the Image

I bought a Jelly Roll (a roll of 2 1/2 inch strips of fabric) that came with a pattern, Basket Case, as well as the necessary accent fabrics. It was for a queen size quilt.  I was so excited, I was so in love. I got home and I started cutting, I started sewing... And well I got confused. I somehow managed to cut my accent fabrics incorrectly. I was really confused, and turned around. I had messed up. 

During this time I quilted on our kitchen table in our tiny 100 year old farmhouse, so whenever we actually needed the table I had to clean everything up... I needed the table for company, I cleaned up the beautiful, incorrectly cut fabric, put it in my fabric tub, put it away, and didn't look at it again for a long time. I was so disheartened. I loved that fabric and I wanted that quilt, but I had really messed it up. I was so new to quilting that I just didn't know what to do when you messed something up, at the time it didn't occur to me that I didn't HAVE to follow a pattern. 

The months went on, and I made a few other projects (which I will blog about later) and my confidence started building again. I thought of that beautiful fabric from time to time, even looked at it from time to time, but just wasn't sure what to do with it, and was so afraid to touch it because I might mess it up even more. The other complication was that I had purchased the fabric when it was scarce, so I couldn't find anymore of it in my area. I even glanced online to see if I could find it, and the prints I loved most were all gone... I thought if I could just buy more, but I couldn't. 

In the winter of 2009 my "baby" sister became pregnant with her first child and I was thrilled to say the least. I was even more THRILLED when we found out she was having a baby girl!!! I had two boys, and I wanted to make something for a girl so badly. 

The Summer before my little niece was born I pulled out the Fresh Air Fabric! Making that quilt was wonderful for me. It was time consuming for me, which was good. Even though I had a baby of my own which kept me busy, I was in Wisconsin and my younger sister lives in Texas, and I was so sad I wasn't with her. In her 30th week of pregnancy she was put on bed rest due to Preeclampsia. We were all scared. The goal was to make it to 34 weeks before taking the baby. While I worked on that quilt I prayed and I prayed hard. Our prayers were answered and surprising her doctors, my sister was able to carry the baby to 38 weeks. 

I had to make a lot of modifications to the "Basket Case" pattern, and of course it was much smaller than queen size. Also, I wasn't sure what to do for a border, because I had messed up the accent fabric previously. My Mother-In-Law, who is a gifted quilter and seamstress told me that I should cut the strips 1 1/2  inches wide and piece them together to make a border. WOW! That was time consuming, but was a great recommendation. The quilt turned out beautifully, my sister loved it. 

I got my quilting confidence back! In fact it was stronger than ever because I realized that even though I make mistakes, I can still create something beautiful and oftentimes the modifications turn out better than the original instructions. I still wish I had enough of Fresh Air to make myself a big quilt and even 4 years later I still have my eyes out for fabric reminiscent of Fresh Air by Chez Moi!