Surgery or a Band-aid?

I have a dilemma and I would deeply appreciate your thoughts.

This is a quilt that I made years ago for our son's girlfriend (who I'm happy to say is now my daughter-in-law and mother of our only grandchild).  With most any quilt, there are factors that make it special (at least to the quilt maker).  In the case of this quilt there are two:

• She was working with leaf cutter ants as part of her PhD in microbiology.  Thus, the ant fabric was the genesis for what other fabrics would be used.

• I paper pieced the Canadian maple leaf on the back.  I can't remember how many pieces are in this but I wanted to honor her with a special label. I will not do this again although I'm sure there is an easier pattern out there.  This is not my forte!

The dilemma is this.  I did not have easy access to a long arm machine at the time and quilted it on my Bernina.  I did straight line quilting about an inch apart and changed directions periodically for interest. But, all stitching was on the diagonal.  I really liked the look of it.

Now, several years later (8 to be exact) and after lots of use, the quilting stitching is breaking.  A lot.  I have the quilt in my possession and was going to repair it but was startled to find more than 30 breaks that range from 1'-1.5" to 3"-4".  And I suspect there are more -- this is black thread on a lot of black fabric and hard to see.

So -- I can only see two options:

1.  I can fix the black linear stitching like I had planned.

The good, bad, and ugly are:  I can do it pretty quickly; it will keep the linear stitching; and it will probably continue to rip out over time when the quilt is used.  So -- basically, it's fast and nothing else changes.  Essentially, a band-aid.

2.  I can put the quilt on Lola and quilt it with a more 'fluid" design in a different color thread and pick out the black stitching.  

The good, bad, and ugly are:  It will take longer; the linear "look" will be gone once I take out the black stitching; and it will be more secure with stitching going in lots of directions.  Essentially, surgery.

At the heart of the matter (I think) is whether the quilt is worthy of being saved.  It's not a show quilt and certainly not fancy.  It gets lots of use in a home that appreciates and loves my quilts and it's not the only quilt they have.  My son and daughter-in-law are NO help.  I mean NONE!  I believe they would be happy with either.  I am not happy with the fidelity of my stitching not being secure but I have never put a finished quilt on a long arm and then ripped stitching.  I cannot figure out whether it's "worth" it or not.  I am usually pretty decisive so being in limbo (or denial) is a new occurrence for me.

I welcome your thoughts and questions!

I hope you are finding time to create and not hamstrung by decisions!

Jan

Trade you!

Some of you may remember my gushing over the Daiwabo fabrics, design, and ultimately, the finished quilt top.  Man -- I love this!

But, these are fabrics well out of my price range and quite frankly, out of my normal comfort zone when it comes to color and tone.  So -- how did I get so lucky?  I'm glad you asked.

A few years ago, I posted about falling out of love with this quilt block.  When I saw the original quilt (made from old kimonos) in a Quilters Newsletter, I fell madly in love with it and knew it was how I wanted to use up my scraps from the Wavy Log Cabin I had made.

I sort of believe that these beautiful Asian fabrics can't really go on your shelves by color -- like Kaffe fabrics (in my little world), they have to stay together.  So, I had a tote of every little scrap as I couldn't bear to throw them away. But I got tired of it.  I fell out of love.  I don't really like paper piecing and the process was taking the joy out of the design.  I thought the blocks were fabulous and the potential for the quilt was great -- but I was losing any mojo for finishing it.  And into a shoe box it went!

Wavy Log Cabin

At the same time, mom22smartchix was losing her mojo for the Daiwabo quilt.  These little blocks look so simple. Ha!  Lining up 1/2" strips after you have sub-cut is not easy and there is a lot of ripping involved.  Whether it was a pity swap or a joyous swap, I'll never know for sure -- but last year during a visit, we gladly gave each other our shoeboxes and walked away from our projects.

I am still doing the Snoopy Happy Dance that I don't have to paper piece all those strips -- and now the Daiwabo top is done and making me smile every time I walk by it.  It's in the living room -- never even made it upstairs to the quilt top closet.  I have chosen not to fret about how to quilt it or what color thread as those decisions are far far away -- instead, I am tickled it's done and happy to have it to look at and all the little snippets remain isolated (of course) in their shoebox!

Tired of something that you started -- find a friend to trade with -- it's a blast!

Jan

What's the diff?

I think I'm giving up -- and that goes against my grain!  The photo on the left is a project I started 2 years ago and I managed to get 8 of these made with various beautiful Asian prints.  But I've lost steam and can't even seem to be able to get myself focused to finish one more so I could at least use them in a 3 X 3 layout.

It's all paper piecing and intended to use up my leftover Asian fabrics.  It is based on an incredible quilt that was made by a Japanese quilter from old sari fabric and called "fireworks".  And it was aptly named if you've ever seen it -- it was beautiful and huge.  I would love to see it in person because I suspect it really glows.

I think the crux of the problem is that I don't really like paper piecing and maybe this is too much of the same thing over and over -- even though the fabrics were beautiful.  I contrast that with the New York Beauty which is more intricate piecing but every element was different fabric and challenging. I'm sure it's not the fabrics -- I love both types.  And it's not the process because I feel the same about it when I'm doing it.

So -- what is it?  Monotony?  Goodness knows that I've gotten bored with piecing a quilt where it was the same block (and even fabric) over and over.  But I usually persevere.  Not this time.  I've waited over a year for my "clean up" mode to kick in and re-motivate me to finish leftover projects.  Hasn't happened with this one.

I'm curious -- what do you do when you lose your mojo for a project?  I really do love these fabrics and I think it has the opportunity to be a striking quilt (wallhanging?  8 small pillows?).    I've kept the fabric in its own tote since I want to make sure to preserve the black I'm using so that I don't have a shade shift if I end up having to use a different black.  It's obvious, I haven't had the heart to mainstream the fabrics back into my stash which tells me I still have a little attachment to it.  But somehow, I'm not feeling it (of course, that's good since it's in storage with all our furniture somewhere!).  Any suggestions?

On a personal note, we close on a house today and leave for vacation tomorrow.  Timing is everything and this is a bit crazy.

Aloha!  Jan