The quilt that wouldn't die

We spent last weekend at the cabin. The weather was horrible, windy and wet, but inside it was all lovely and warm and cuddly, that is after husband had burned up a few bags of wood. Grandson was racing around on his little motorcycle dressed in a hat, my scarf as he thought the one I had just knitted for him was itching, homemade knitted wool pants and warm shoes. Husband bought that bike for him when he was 2 and he was petrified of this thing that moved by itself and made lots of noise. Now he loves it, and doesn’t mind that it’s a size or two too small.

I was putting away the crib that has been in my bedroom since he was a baby, and found the quilt that has been serving as an extra mattress in the crib, “Crop circles – an UFO has landed” (2004) AKA The quilt that wouldn’t die.

It started out in my early quilting days with a bunch of light charm squares and a wish to push my colour preferences. This was way before digital cameras and blogging, so unfortunately I don’t have pictures of the process, but the images are still fresh in my mind. I paired the squares up with some light greens and made them into shoofly blocks. Too sweet, they made my teeth hurt. What if I add dark green sashing? Yuck.

How about a recycled curtain border? Hmmm, but I do love that curtain fabric!

What about appliquéing free form cut leaves? Well? Really? And flowers? Still too blah.

I finally put it away (again) and there I found it when I was finishing up quilting some old ufos to keep at the cabin.

What to do, what to do. What if I paint on it? Silk paint to the rescue; giant big bright circles, fleece backing, a little wonky quilting and done!

Looking at it now, I kind of wish I had put more effort into finishing it because it could have been a nice quilt. Except for the serving-as-mattress-creases I actually like it – and it’s all because of the bright and lovely paint.

Lesson learned – don’t quit on a quilt to soon.

Do you finish those quilts that just won’t die, or do you put them out of their misery?