frogging it

Have you ever had one of those days when you were sewing along nicely, and then you realized you did something really stupid? That happened to me the other day!

Some of your might know or remember seeing this quilt featured in a picture about acronyms. It is a quilt I designed for my niece with 1/2 yard cuts she picked out. I put together most of the quilt while I was away on my quilting retreat in a convent. I started quilting it a with 50 weight 100% cotton thread; I normally use straight polyester for simple sewing. Well, dumb me, when I started quilting, I completely forgot about that! And needless to say, I forgot to check my bobbin tension! If you know what happened, please raise your hand. My thread was not pulled all the way through to the back of the quilt. It looked perfect on the front and was just floating on the top of the quilt backing!

Now, this quilt does not have to be perfect. I know that. I can get pretty particular about certain things, but when the quilting doesn't hold the quilt together, it just ain't gonna hold! OOps...a little southern accent is showing through today. Did I mention we ate barbecue spare ribs with homemade creamy coleslaw on the weekend? That must have done it. ;-)

Since I am doing very little quilting on this one, it has to hold all three layers. What to do? I put this quilt on hold for a while trying to get my other projects done, because when you have a brain fart like I did, you simply have to put it aside and come back when you have forgiven yourself! My deadline was the first week of April, but better right than not. I pulled it back out today and started the ever dreaded process of "frogging it." Do you know what I am talking about? Rip it, rip it, rip it. For those of you who don't know this phrase, it means that you take your beloved seam ripper, my best friend, and rip those seams out by cutting through every fourth stitch to remove the thread. On the other side, you can usually pull the thread out in one long pass. I have to rip about 75% of what I quilted which is about 1/4 of the quilt. I am going to have so much fun!

Now, we would like to hear from you! What do you do on days like this? Please leave a comment and tell us all about it.