A quilt for Anne

Last summer I started working on a quilt for my sister-in-law, Anne. It was painstaking work - I knew I wanted it to be her Christmas present, so I tried to cut each piece perfectly and to sew each block precisely. My new sewing machine helped make the sewing faster, but it was still slow going.

I finally finished the quilt in early December. I tossed it in the washer to get off all the cat hair (Lucy and Mac love to sit on quilts as they're being made). Once it was removed from the drier, I found that about 1/4 of all the seams had pulled apart in the laundry:

UGH!!! How completely demoralizing to put so much work into it, only to have it fray all over the place!! (That'll teach me to buy clearance fabric!)

I debated starting fresh, but I knew there was no way I could get a new quilt done in time for Christmas. So I spent most of the afternoon on the Saturday before Christmas trying to patch up the frays as best I could. Sigh. It looks pretty nice despite the tears, but I'm afraid it was continue to unravel if Anne ever has to wash it again. Hence the weird look on my face, despite my overall love for the design:

(And here's a slightly less washed-out view of it:)

Sigh. Merry Christmas, Anne! I hope you still appreciate it, despite the fabric's flaws.