Frustration - Tears - and two finished Baby Quilts

Argh. I do not know where I sould start this post. A week has past since I quilted the Snowball-Quilt for my Godson in Canada. It was some frustrating day!!

But lets start with pictures of the Lemon Fresh Summer Quilt. That was an easy, but still very pretty looking quilt to do. I LOVE the pattern that I used on the free motion quilting! I really should have used an all over pattern for the Snowballquilt as well... But you're always smarter after...

Okay. No words, just pictures:
The Lemon Fresh Summer Baby Quilt for my friend Sarah's nephiew!

 I am not writing this post as the things actually happend. I quilted the Lemon Fresh Summer Quilt a few days after finishing the Snowball Quilt. The quilting of this one above really lifted me up again and draged me out of a very strong frustration in quilting.

Lets start with these pictures of my designing a pattern for the snowball quilt:

I used tissue paper to draw my design. This picture also shows the backing and my thread I was gonna use

On my "Test-Sandwich" everything worked just fine and really liked how the little paw turned out!

 Thread and Design ready, I was keen to start quilting. I made my sandwich and got my machine ready. Both my kids were taken care of and I had a full 6 hrs for myself and I was very confident that I'd be able to finish the quilting. I did. but I was very frustrated at the end of the day...

I was confident, but in the first few blocks I did really bad. Just as I started to "get in the flow" the bobbin ripped. NOOOO! After getting everything back in place! The tension was off! NOOO! After getting that fixed, the top thread ripped! NOOOO. I was struggeling and struggeling. Don't know what was wrong with my machine, but it just kept bothering. The terrible thing is, that I just never really got into a good flow in free motion, so most of the pattern looks kind of... I don't know... just messed up :-(

Then I started to quilt the border. I did fine, but I struggled with "going down" with the quilt. I just had to stop every 8 inches or so and everytime I started again, it would make this horrible corner.. I just decided to do the wavey line over and over until it didn't show so much anymore. Thank goodness the paws turned out just fine! I think the reason is, that I am really good in round patterns... That's why the lemon fresh quilt turned out so pretty.
Anyhow here the pictures:

I did get by and I am not so frustrated about the quilting anymore. I really like the look of the quilt in whole now! And it is soo sooooft! I love the moda fabric! It feels so nice! Perfect for a baby!

Next, I made my first Quilt-Label. I decided to stich it and I wrote down the words with this blue pen, that will fade by washing. Now instead of washing that out before putting the binding on, I binded and then realized: "Oh no, the pen still shows! I'm just gonna put it in the washing machine, cause it needs to be washed anyhow, since it's gonna be a babyquilt." Ahem. Have I mentioned I pre wash my fabric??? STUPID ME!!!!!

So this is what made me cry...

The seams on the outline ripped open! You cannot believe how I hated myself and how frustrated and discouraged I felt. I took a seat in front of the TV one night and sewed it all back together by hand.

I do not have to mention I am a really bad hand stitcher...

I got the quilt ready. It looks just beautiful and I am sure my Godson will love it and his lovely parents will appreciate my work!

It will go in the mail tomorrow.

You see, I am going through ups and downs, but I am not letting these frustrating moments discourage me. I still love doing the patchwork and the quilting! Quilting is terribly addicting! It totally changed my life and the way I look at thinks (I think in blocks and doodles now ;-)

I hope you enjoyed this post and watch out, there is more to come! There's a new project on it's way! It's gonna be a Full Size Quilt this time!

Until then! Happy Crafting!