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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

To Err is Human....

Thanks to everyone who wished me well after my bout with bronchitis! I'm much better, these four days (and a z-pack, thank the Lord!) later, but still coughing with Poise, if you catch my drift! LOL

Yesterday was my birthday!  Like my mother before me, I've started calling myself old before my time....I was born the year before Kennedy was shot, if that's any reference for you :-D, so I'm not technically old, but there are some days I sure feel it!  I started worrying about myself for sure earlier today!

I got in the mail (on my birthday, how cool is that!! :-D) fabric for the1st of a block-of-the-month I enrolled in a while back, so I thought I would indulge myself and just do that one little block (it's not really like starting anything new!! It's not like I can finish it because I don't have the rest of the fabric!!).

It's the cutest quilt! I love the designer and her quilts -- so darling, and such cool use of muted colors and primitive touches...just what a dark old bird like me enjoys!  I hadn't gotten very far into the pattern, though, when things were NOT going together like they should.

Did I read the pattern wrong? Did I cut something wonky?  Is it the first stages of Alzheimer's? How old am I?  What year is it!!!!???

No....I started going over the numbers, and there was no way mathematically the block was going together like it said.  So out came the seam ripper and thread started flying and I started fuming!  (All that self examination took its toll on my psyche!!)

I turned to the computer and started looking up contact information and composing a "strongly worded letter" (that's what Leo Decaprio says he's going to do when he's drowning in the North Atlantic in Titanic!  It always cracks me up! so I'm laughing out loud while I'm crying and croaking, "Live, Rose! Live!!!" Sheesh!!!).

I've done that before, you know.  A few years ago I did the Victory Quilt from Quilt in a Day and couldn't get my Nosegay block to go together.  I fired off a scorching missive to QinaD -- only to discover that I'd cut my template out wrong.  Can't you just imagine them....?

"Hey, Ellie!! We got another one here who thinks she's smarter than you!!!"
"Wonder how long she's been quilting?"
"Who's she think she is!?!"
"Moron!!!"

This time, though, the pattern really is wrong.  So I ran the numbers (a simple 4", 8" and 12" progression), and reassembled the block, step by step:




And Voila!! the block becomes all it's meant to be!! Happy birthday to me!! :-)

More often than not, though, the problem is with me and not the designer!

When I (as my mother used to call it) "act ugly" -- when I don't act the way I should, I wanna say, "Oh, God knows I'm like this.  He made me this way.  It's not my fault!"  As if He is to blame for my impulse control, or my quick, sharp tongue or my general sour demeanor that day. My first instinct is to blame the Designer. 

No, better to take a look to see if I -- yes, I! :-D -- have done something wrong.  When it comes to my Designer, yeah...it's me, it's me, it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer, as the old children's Sunday School song says.  Thankfully, Jesus doesn't want to hold stupidity or perfidy against me.  John the Beloved tells us, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  (I John 1:9)

I like how the Amplified Version expounds...."He is faithful and just (true to his own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action]."  Whew!! That covers a whole lotta ground!!  Better to 'fess up and let Him put me back together, conforming me to His perfect image. So I can become all I am meant to be, more's the praise!

So no strongly worded letter, I think. :-)
I sure hope Ellie forgave me for being a moron! :-)
And I will certainly forgive the designer her error.  To err is human; to forgive divine.
Besides, it's too cool a quilt to give up on!!
I can't wait for next month (when I won't be starting another quilt all over again)!

Blessings,


19 comments:

QuiltSue said...

Happy birthday to yooooo,
Happy birthday to yoooooooo,

just be glad you're not near enough to actually hear me singing.

Glad you're over the bronchitis, and that you sorted your block out. The colours you're using look lovely.

Anonymous said...

Awe, the block turned out lovely...I'm sure you're not experiencing alzheimer's...maybe too much coughing rattled your brain a little. =)

Shellie said...

wonderful block, Mary Lou!! you did wonderfully in making it work. and happy belated birthday :)

julieQ said...

I hope you are all better now! Happiest belated birthday...and may I say, I just love your big wonderful block! LOVE IT!!!

Crispy said...

Happy Belated Birthday youngster LOL. I'm so happy you sorted out that block....this is why I redraft everything into EQ, that way I don't have send any nasty e-mails LOL

Crispy

Michele said...

Glad you're feeling better with Poise, I can relate, dear, and HOW. I do hope you will let the designer know, maybe in a gently confiding manner, that she got it wrong. It happens a lot. I thought they had proof readers (sewers) for these things, but obviously not. The designers do add corrections to the patterns going out once they are convinced they made a booboo. Glad you figured out the math, some of us have trouble with that part. Michele

Lori said...

You are too funny Mary Lou. I am doing a Bible study of Beth Moore's and she speaks of having our impulses be Christlike. I can only pray I'll be there someday!!

What a lovely block!!

Lori said...

PS Happy belated birthday!!

Anonymous said...

You stinker! You never mentioned a birthday coming up! Now I'm late to tell you Happy Birthday!!! Love the block! Boy are we similiar...take a look here!
http://www.quilthollow.com/2008/09/old-to-me-but-new-to-you.html

I'll write later...back to quilting.

Michelle said...

Wow...I am doing that SAME block of the month and had the SAME problem! Actually another friend and I were sewing it together (online) the same night and we quickly realized the pattern was full of errors! We were able to make the corrections and get it sewn together. I haven't yet emailed the designer or the shop supplying the BOM, but I'm sure I will. It's amazing that no one caught the errors until now. It will be fun to watch your progress along with ours...we can help each other if/when there are more errors! :)

Patty Sumner said...

I feel as if I am in a foreign country and do not know the language. This is one way to keep up with you with the distance between us. I am familiar with the scripture and can relate to the different versions of the Bible. Took my Amplified to jail Monday and gave it to one of the girls that came to the Bible Study. I also gave away my "message" Bible and a "celebrate Recovery" Bible. Do not worry, I still have my 6-way-parallel Bible. I am sure if anyone can figure out a quilt mishap...that would be you. Have a blessed one. Keep focused and remember get your rest and go to bed!

Stray Stitches (Linda G) said...

Happy belated birthday to you!!! I had one of those days yesterday but the error was all MINE! Forgot to reverse things for the opposite side of the block (big dummy me) so the seam ripper and I were good friends yesterday. Of course, it would have helped if I had read the instructions instead of just guessing and jumping ahead.

The Purple Turtle said...

We're Birthday Buddies!!

I'm an All Saint's Day Baby too!

Happy Belated Birthday - only the truely special are born on the day for celebrating saints!

A Plain Path said...

Happy Birthday! Lovely block and lovely biblical lesson...so needed by us all.

Sarah Craig said...

Happy birthday - and please don't claim Alzheimer's at your age, as Kennedy's funeral is one of the first clear memories I have and I'm not ready for Alzheimer's yet! Love your Bible lesson - it's so easy to say, well this is the way I was made - but it's not true that we were made to be short-tempered and self-centered! I'm finally learning this myself..... so thanks for the reminder!!

Karen said...

Birthday wishes to you!
I like the block design very much. I have seen a churn dash within a churn dash block but not with the star included.

StitchinByTheLake said...

Oh my goodness we must be sisters! I always think first that the problem can't possibly be me until I slow down, reread, think through slowly and discover, dag nab it, I didn't do it right! God may have made me but unfortunately He didn't curb my tongue nearly as much as He should have. :) blessings, marlene

Diane said...

Happy Birthday! What BOM is that? I like that block. I know what you mean about the whole "it has to be the person" thing. That is my very first thought, then I am gently reminded of who I am.

~Niki~ said...

oh dratz! i missed your bday hugs~
here's a bday belated hug for you mary lou!
niki