Lowlights Reel

"The reason we struggle with insecurity is that we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlights reel."  -Steve Furtick

This post is a behind-the-scenes. You all see the fantabulous end results and none of the struggles to get there. Who wants to read a blog about all the times you messed up?  I'll have some pretty pictures, please!

This weekend was definitely a behind-the-scenes reel. On Saturday, I took the shoe quilt to KiwiQuilts to baste on the longarm and to do some of the quilting. It would have been pretty embarrassing if I didn't have a secure sense of self (developed much later in life, btw.  Another favorite quote is Eleanor Roosevelt's - "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.") I couldn't even remember how to turn the machine on. I couldn't remember how to make it go, and the fabric I'm using was not cooperating, so it was hard to baste. In my defense, it has been since November since I used the machine, and the only time I had used it before that was a class two years ago, so I haven't developed any muscle memory. :)  People tell me when I teach class that I am so patient, and this is why. I know I am far from perfect, so it's much easier to be patient with someone who is learning.

Sunday we had planned to do gardening, but it rained, so it was a perfect excuse for Al to watch The Master's and for me to put the binding on "Autumn at Lost Mountain." When I took the quilt up from being blocked, despite all the great smooshing, it puffed up in the middle again and the border was wavy. I blocked it again, and when I took it up yesterday, still poofy in the middle, border still wavy. I'm not sure if that's because of the polyester in the batting or what, but I'm not blocking it again. I started putting the binding on, and my first corner is wonky, so that's a do-over, also.

So all in all, pretty frustrating...I'm headed over to Kiwi tomorrow to baste some more!  Next post will be pretty pictures (or at least pictures), but just wanted to share with you that I don't just sit down at the machine and churn out lovely results. Sometimes they are spectacular failures. Einstein once said that "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."  

Ladies, if a man says he'll fix it, he will. There's no need to bother him every six months about it.