The Sloppy Quilter

I started with a pile of wonderful colors in squares measuring 4 by 4 inches.  All of the colors are posed around my favorite fabric, a flannel with funny owls.  I thought my two year old Godson would like those wide-eyed owls, and maybe an owl-covered nap quilt would make him sleepy.

I found the owl fabric difficult to work with.  Perhaps it is because I am in an orange/yellow/red mode.  Perhaps because the flannel is very matte and the colors read differently on it.  I tried many color combinations and designs.

At one point my quilt was going to be all blues, with strips of owl fabric in between.  I realized that many of the blues were too large scaled and contemporary looking, with too many white accents.  Maybe that will be the next quilt, a double one for the guest room.  I also decided that the owls needed some order around them.

So I did an Irish Chain Quilt.  I learned a lot while I did it.  I seem to need those oranges, yellows and reds.  And I am terribly sloppy.  I pieced the squares in strips.  The flannel stretched and I sewed inaccurately, and I came up with strips of different lengths.  Did I start all over?  No.

I'm not proud of it, but I decided that I cared about the color more than the pattern, and I need to quilt it soon so it will be ready for his birthday.  I hacked off the uneven ends.  It doesn't really look that great on one side, and I'm quite embarrassed about it.  But I'm keeping it the way it is.  And I'm going to accept the fact that I'm not really willing to chase perfection in sewing anymore.  So I'm not going to do any more traditional patterns.  I'm going to do crazy quilts and bar quilts that I make up as I go along.  My strength is color, and that's what I want to explore when I sew.