The End is Near

That's not as apocalyptic as it sounds. I'm nearing the finish line of my brother's quilt, at long last!

In the last 20 days I've been cross-hatching the borders, working around all the appliqued pieces which resulted in as much time burying ends as creating them. Once that was done, the edges were trimmed and the label made and basted to a corner on the back.

The hanging sleeves--I made two so there'd be a space in the top center where an additional hook or nail could be placed to prevent bowing--were basted to the top then the bottom edges sewn down. Finally, I attempted to determine a finished length for all the sides.

Kind-sight

Pillow made for a dear friend. Also a good lesson in second-guessing alignment in a 2-part embroidery project.

Sister is done and in the dryer, a glass of wine is within reach, and The Loud is at work for another hour--a perfect time for quiet contemplation.

While marking Sister this afternoon--filling 100s of square inches with teal and purple dots and lines gives one time for introspection--it occurred to me that I had been very ugly to myself. I basically eliminated all landmarks from a "terrain", telling myself to navigate it without any clues: I set myself up to fail, then called myself a failure for even attempting it.

I never let anyone do that to my children when they were growing up. Why, then, do I allow myself the 'privilege' of doing it to myself?

The Continuing St-o-o-o-o-ry

The unsewing has begun:

Four complete middles with their 4 "wings", and 5 sets of 1/2-blocks picked out from top and bottom and paired up again.

During the picking, I noticed some junctions were extremely bulky, with the seam allowances ironed to one side instead of alternating. Even 20 years ago I understood how nicely bulk was distributed if you could "twirl" the seams where 4 corners met. How had I gotten so off track with this top that I couldn't accomplish that?

Doing Unto Myself

That's not as selfish, or as ... well, it's not as selfish as it sounds! Not in a bad way, at least.

I considered the various steps possible to create as many whole pinwheels as I could to widen the existing top.

~ I could remove the bottom 4 rows and get four entire pinwheels out of that (and shorten the top to a mere 6 feet), adding them to one side to create more width.
~ I could pick out the 5 segments from the top rows to complete the bottom 5 pinwheel blocks (which can also be moved to the side), replacing the pick-out squares with others that didn't have to match with anything at the bottom (as they do now).
~ I could do the same with one long side, rejoining the separated pinwheels into whole blocks again, then replacing the removed squares with a set of different fabrics (e.g. remove the 4 medium-blue half-triangle squares on the left, join them to their mates on the right, and replace them with, say, four red HTSs that don't match up with anything but themselves).

That's a LOT of undoing. Is it worth it?

Then it struck me: if a friend with 20 years less experience than I had, or a friend who had "inherited" this, were to come to me with this top and say 'I don't know what to do!', I would (and have) give 100% attention, enthusiasm, and expertise to get it fixed. Why then can't I treat my 20-years-younger self with that same generosity?

Simple answer: I can, and I will. Game on!