Always Go With Your Gut!

The triangular areas after I redid them.

  So, this past week, I learned a very valuable lesson in quilting.  The lesson is this:  trust your instincts!  In the past three years of quilting, I have rarely had to take out any quilting.  I usually have a pretty good idea of what I want to do before I start, and then I just go with it.  Well, this time I wasn't totally sure about one triangular section of the quilt.  I started out by quilting a large feather into the area.  I looked at it.  I didn't like it.  I thought, "It will take 45 minutes to take that out, and I hate taking stuff out.  Maybe it will look better when I do the next section."  I continued.  After I did all EIGHT sections, I still didn't like it.  I looked at it.  I thought, "Maybe if I echo the feathers and add some veins, it will look better."  So, I did.  Still didn't like it.  Being completely sure that there was no way I was going to take all that quilting out, I decided to do pebbling down the center of the feathers to cover the centers, (which had too much thread build up because I used King Tut thread).  I pebbled.  I hated it.  I tried to tell myself it was okay, and would be okay.  I took it off the frame.  I showed it to my husband and asked his opinion.  He didn't like it either.  It sat in a bag for two days while I wrestled with taking out all that quilting, reloading the quilt, and redoing those 8 triangular areas.  Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.  I started taking out.  It took TEN hours to remove, and another three hours to load and requilt. It looked sooooo much better.  Moral of this story..."Trust Your Gut!"  P.S.  My customer LOVED IT!