Quilting in a group

I realize that my post today may sound a bit catty.  I really don't mean to be disparaging.

This week I have brought home a quilting project to do.  My patchwork group has had this quilt in the making for probably more than two years.  A blog friend so generously sent me a BOM kit with fabrics and patterns and our group decided to make the quilt with each of us taking home a packet or two.

There are maybe 7 of us in our patchwork group which nearly 20 years ago started out as a mother's group at the kindergarten that raffled off a quilt every year at the kindergarten bazaar.  The members of course have changed a bit as people move on or away but the group started when Mrs. Furui and I put our love of needlework to good use.  All of us in the group are now in our late fifties or sixties and most everyone has grandchildren now (not me yet).

We all love chatting and getting together once a month, one friend making the three hour trip from Tokyo to get to the gathering.  We no longer make quilts for the kindergarten bazaar and instead seem to make quilts for ourselves such as a joint quilt for someone in the group's 60th birthday.  A few people bring their own projects but basically we all just chat until Mrs. Furui or I suggests we do some handwork.  Everyone is really good for basting parties!  I have a feeling that maybe only two or three of us really like quilting and that everyone is perfectly happy just drinking tea and sharing stories.

We also tend to drag the newest members into our group saying they can just "help" and they don't really need any skill, that we'd just like to see them once a month and they can chat while others of us sew...  It is a very laid-back group and almost can't be called a patchwork group anymore.

Back to the BOM quilt.  Mrs. Furui and I doled out packets and gave basic instructions on applique.  Note that BASIC.  A month or so later the finished blocks trickled in and then they sat in a box for another 6 months.  The most recent development to get the blocks out of the box was to suggest we make up the quilt and give it to our newest member as she has joined our group after her 60th birthday.  At any rate, the blocks got sewn together and sandwiched and the quilt has been ready for quilting.

And for the next two weeks, it is my turn to bring the quilt home and hand quilt it.

Most of the blocks have turned out beautifully and all I have to do is stitch-in-the-ditch quilt around all the applique.  (No background quilting).

But a few of the blocks' applique is coming undone!  All those leaves with all those points.  All the flowers with all those inverted Vs.  Sigh...  Our basic instructions were definitely lacking in specifics.

So...  to leave as is as a witness of the different skills in our group or to start repair?

This problem has occurred before for example when a quilt went around to be hand quilted and we forgot to tell the beginning quilter that knots needed to be hidden...  We left that quilt as is because it was for a group member and would be too obvious that the new to quilting member's quilting had been redone.  Love was put into each stitch so what does it matter that it isn't perfect.

In this case, the BOM blocks have been in the box for so long that none of us can remember which block we'd actually made (thus "quilt your own block" didn't apply).  I've decided to repair as I go which in some cases has entailed removing the leaf in question and reappliqueing it.  Ah...  One problem is that the person who tried so hard had snipped all around the leaf shape which sounds like it would result in a curved shape but actually means that there are that many more places for the leaf to become un-ravelled.

My first four stitch-in-the-ditch blocks have quilted up pretty quickly but the one I've been repairing has taken two days to redo half of the leaves...

The other blocks look pretty good and I will probably not try to repair any misshapen flowers...  When you look at the quilt as a whole it all seems uniformly done and beautiful.

As I sew I think about how the few experienced appliquers in our group do NOT really consider themselves mentors and how we COULD have used the project as a teaching experience instead of just handing out packets and saying "Go to it."  I feel sorry for the members who went home and struggled through their assignment and admire them for how they persevered.  I also realize that perfectionism is not the goal... that's why I'm questioning the repair work I'm doing.

This will be a beautiful quilt and our newest member is already looking forward to displaying it on her living room wall.  She will love every stitch of it.