Unfinished Object

This week is all about unfinished projects. This one really makes me feel bad. I had it out for a long time hoping that viewing it would make me work on it, but instead, viewing it made me feel a pang of failure and I still didn't pick up my quilting threads. Finally, I stuffed it way under my bed and allowed the kids to play with my Q-snap quilting frame. The Q-snap pulls apart into sword like sections and my son preferred this to his actual toys.

I started it a long time ago and it was meant to be a simple, quick quilt. I hoped to bring it to the family that graciously hosts us at their summer cabin every year. I even considered the colors of the living room at the cabin. It's more of a lake house really. They've also redecorated since I selected this pattern. This pattern is called "Sticks and Stones". The blue and yellow squares are the stones and the other squares are (obviously) the sticks. If I had to do it again, I would probably not select this pattern and I would not use so much yellow.



My excuse at the time I quit working on it was that I was having an uncomfortable pregnancy. My daughter turned 9 this summer, so that had to be 10 years ago. Next summer will be our 25th year visiting the cabin, so maybe I will finish it for that milestone.



I successfully hand quilted five quilts before this one. Most of those were small wall sizes. On this project, I don't know why I didn't just quilt in the ditch, but I decided to do traditional quilting 1/4 inch away from every seam. At some point in this project, I realized that I hate hand quilting. My grandma and I used to have conversations about what a slog it is to hand quilt things. Gram used to love traditional hand piecing, but she could never deal with the hand quilting part.

So anyway, I know you all have projects like this that you have never finished. People who don't craft will ask, "Why don't you just finish it?" There is no good answer to this question. Often, I don't finish small projects and I just toss them out and forget about them completely. I can't do that with this project, there is too much fabric and time invested in it. Several of these fabrics were given to me out of grandma's stash. All my cabin friends know how much I sew and I really do want to make a project for The Cabin. Alas..

This past weekend was our annual trip. My husband and I got to sleep in what we refer to as The Love Shack. The family refers to this as The Honeymoon Cottage. I think I remember the story that this was the original cabin on the lake property. Other sleeping accommodations include The Dorm, The Sofa, The Master Bedroom, Danny's Room, The Loft, and sometimes The Inflatable Mattress on the Floor. As I recall, some years the sleeping arrangements included Under the Stairs in the Hallway, and Nick reports that once he slept out on The Pontoon. 20 to 25 of us attend each year, often with babies and sometimes with kids, so sleeping arrangements have to be creative.

Summer is more than half over already! I hope you are enjoying yours! I think I'm going to get outside and forget about today's to-do list and just enjoy!