quilt

Fix it Before it gets Worse

Back in November, having seen too many social media posts of the very fun and tedious temperature blankets that people were knittings, or crocheting (yes there’s a difference, no I will not remember what it is), I got it in my head to make a temperature quilt - because I can’t knit (or crochet or whatever) but I can sew. And I have a mother who quilts to give me advice (who tried to teach me to knit but we both agreed that was a horrible experience). I finally started the monstrosity in December after wreaking havoc on my brain trying to nail down a color scheme and design, and all was going well if slowly until two weeks ago when i decided that the green were flip flopped and needed to be switched.

Which would mean deconstructing everything I’d done, including most of the embroidery I’d finished the previous evening, and piece-mealing the entire thing back together. Or the other option, do nothing, continue one, and let it make my brian itch for the rest of my life.

And so I spent four hours with a seam ripper, and another 12 hours putting all of the pieces back together…. and then the last 2 weeks fixing the embroidery.

Was it tedious and irritating to rework something I’d done once already - something noone but me would know was wrong (wrong in the most subjective of terms) - and yet, it looks better, and having done it I’m so glad I did it. You can still see the leftover lime green surrounding the center hearts where I simply cut them out of the old center square and plpped them onto the new one, and adding more vines and leave around them should help that blend in a bit once my fingertips have stopped hurting from the previous round of embroidery. Or a thimble, I could learn to use a thimble.

The other tiny overdue monstrosity I’ve been working on, and fixing, is a small painting of a beetle I probably started during covid and left off of because it was off center and bothering me. Similarly two weeks ago I relaized I could pull the canvas off the tiny stretchers, reposition it, and then finally finish it in my long term goal of maximalism art in my hall and living room. Coincidentally, the back of the canvas is so much less bulky that I’m a little irritated i didn’t do that ages ago. Unfortunately I don’t have before pictures, but also that’s fine because it was awful and maybe we don’t always need to document awfulness.

This little piece also won’t be done for ages because the whole idea of it is to create a 3-D painting that will hopefully look more like a mounted insect than art, and I’m using the Stuart Semple Lovetone paint which is beautifully and horribly transparent which may, if I’m lucky, lend itself to fun trapped light qualities as I slowly layer it up with heavy gel medium.

And that’s it, that’s the lesson - fix it when you notice it because it will only get worse, and building on a shoddy foundation causes building collapse and brain itchyness.

Also, save your drafts because your computer may be connected to a wireless keyboard in the next room that may get turned on by a cat causing your space bar to freak out - causing you to restart your computer hoping to fix whatever has gone horribly wrong before you remember there’s a keyboard in the next room you probably forgot to turn off the other day… and then you get to rewrite everything you wrote once already.

But it’s fine. Everything is fine.