AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

AARRrggh!

Argh.

Sigh.

Just needed to get that off my chest. I finished the Neapolitan top (it took me nearly a whole day to put the stupid borders on, which is ridiculous). I pieced the back because I didn’t have anything big enough, and I actually think the back is kind of cute all by itself. I loaded it on my Little Gracie II frame last night and it’s square and I fussed over how I should quilt it and I dreamed about it and I swore at it and I paged through half a dozen different books and searched for free motion allover patterns on the internet and I finally decided on my original choice, leaves.

I’ve never done leaves before. I practiced drawing them, and they were acceptable. I took a deep breath, girded my loins (okay, hitched up the last clean pair of sweatpants from 50 pounds ago), and started quilting. And it was bad. But I kept going because I thought it would get better and I’d just hide that corner. The quilting improved a bit, but the thread was just so light on the dark border. I wasn’t happy with it. I got a second opinion, and Mom thought it wasn’t up to par, too. So she picked it out for me (have I mentioned enough how much I love my mommy?) while I went to the fabric store to get some different thread. They didn’t have exactly what I wanted, in fact they didn’t have anything close to the dusty rose I was looking for, so I grabbed a big spool of “Dogwood” – a medium light grayish brownish taupe color. I also spotted some cheap serger thread in the perfect pink. I know that you shouldn’t use serger thread for quilting because it isn’t strong enough. I know better. But it was the perfect color, and it was only $2 (duh, Sandi, there’s a clue!), so I bought it.

Take two on the quilt, and I was right, it was the perfect color. I was also right about it not being strong enough because it broke twice in ten inches. Dammit! So, off to the QUILTING store (they sell Gammill quilting machines for $20,000 and oh, by the way, thread). My choices were a gorgeous variegated King Tut by Superior for $25 for 2000 yards or the perfect dusty rose by A&E (?!) for $10.50 for 6000 yards. Bought the cheap one and I am now crossing my fingers that it will work. I want to finish this thing today, or at least get started on the binding.

I just needed a moment to vent. Okay, back to the frame…