What was I thinking? Or Otherwise Also Known as a Quilt Only Its Maker Could Love....

Every once in a while, I have to pause and wonder, “What in the world was I thinking?”

I  had one of those moments last week…as I was struggling with my Round Robin for the guild.  I’ve always participated in the Round Robin and have written several blogs about it and why I think every semi-serious quilter should participate in one at least once.  It stretches your creativity and your skills….blah, blah, blah, blahhhibity, blah, blah, blah.

It was for those reasons that when Linda decided to give up leading our guild’s Round Robin, I jumped right in there and said I would do it.

That was the first  “What in the world was I thinking?” moment in this little experience.

Not that this leadership position was especially demanding – not after being president for three years.  And not that I didn’t have a few new ideas.  I did.  I knew there were enough people that wanted to do the Round Robin, but were just a tad intimidated by working on someone else’s quilt.  So I came up with the idea (admittedly borrowed) for everyone to make a center square between 12- and 18-inches out of gray and white fabric.  The gray and white fabric could be used in any round of the Round Robin, but in addition to the gray and white fabric, we would pull two crayons out of a bag each month.  The accent fabric had to be any shade, color, or hue of the crayons.  And everyone would work on their own Robin.

The crayon idea had to be the second “What in the world was I thinking?” moment. 

Seriously?

I just figured that I’d go into the drug store below  my office and grab a pack of 8 crayons off the shelf, toss them in a bag, and I’d sucker one of the guild visitors to draw the crayons (so no one could blame me for rigging the color choice).

Let me categorically state here that my youngest child is 26.  Do you realize how long it’s been since I’ve had to buy crayons?  I naively assumed, since it was September and all the back-to-school items were still out, that an 8-pack of basic color crayons were easy to be had.

So one day during lunch, I ran into CVS, grabbed the first pack of eight crayons I saw and purchased them.  Two weeks later I opened them to dump them in a bag…and saw the horror of my reality.

For sure, there was the red crayon…and the blue crayon….but no orange, or black, or white.  I had a green and a brown…and a teal?  Seriously?  Teal?

Oy-vey.  I had pictured the ease of primary and secondary colors with the grays and whites.  It was too late to get another pack, since I was already almost late for guild meeting at that point.  So I had to go with what I had…which was not what I had thought I had.

And at this point let me add in the third “What was I thinking?” moment.  Along with the border width specifics I gave everyone, I also gave required blocks.  Half-square triangles.  Square-in-a-squares or flying geese.  Rectangles and circles. 

The first round wasn’t too hard.  We pulled red and blue crayons and had to use squares or half-square triangles.  The second round was a little harder.  This time we pulled brown and green crayons (I had several threats of mutiny over this) and either flying geese or square-in-a-square. 

I was pretty good with everything until this last round.  We pulled that teal crayon and a purple one.

Again…seriously?

Top that color choice with the fact that this round was rectangles and circles, and I hit a quilter’s block as big as Paducah in April.  I stewed over this for days. 

The stewing was definitely not me.  I’ve always been that guild member who brought her Robin home, immediately laid it out on her cutting table, and sketched out two or three ideas.  By the end of the week, I had something thrown into EQ7 and had printed out my pattern.

But not this time.  Between the really odd color choice and the rectangles and circles…I had hit a quilty roadblock.  I. Had. No. Ideas.

None.

So…I measured the width and length, divided it up, cut out rectangles and sewed on circles. It’s basic and to the point, and admittedly I could have done yo-yos or something more creative, but I was bumfuzzled and not ashamed to admit it.

I had just reached the point I wanted it done.

We have one more round to go on this little adventure.  But I am afraid I’m creating a quilt that only I can truly love.  It’s not attractive.  I doubt I will ever quilt it.   But you can bet I’m keeping this little sucker around to remind myself that if I ever come up with another bright idea like I did this time –  to pause and seriously ask myself “What are you thinking?!”