Spectacular Savannah & Adapting

Quilting became a highly effective way for me to manage my Generalized Anxiety.  For the most part, it is a soothing activity that occupies my mind just the right amount.  However, it certainly isn’t always smooth sailing in my quilting projects.

I recently made Elizabeth Hartman’s Spectacular Savannah quilt which was finished using fabric I purchased on a trip to South Africa for the backing.  The top (with the exception of the background) was created with scraps and pieces from my stash, which was very satisfying to me.  The quilt top assembly had gone pretty smoothly, until I started pinning the leaf borders to the animal section, I somehow ended up with more leaf than animal section by about half a leaf.

I was honestly very confused as to how that happened.  I was convinced I had followed the instructions in the pattern, and Elizabeth Hartman is certainly not the one to blame as she is an amazing pattern writer.  I was left accepting that I had somehow made a mistake with the size of the leaves when I first cut out the fabric.  But I was making this quilt to have fun, not to dwell on my mistakes so I pivoted and found an option for myself that didn’t require me going back through the pattern to find that error.  Pondering the quilt, I found that the least amount of seam ripping could be accomplished by shortening the border by 1 leaf each and trimming up the animal section to make it a bit slimmer.

My extra leaves

It worked out great, and if I didn’t point it out to you, you would have no idea that I had made that mistake and strayed from the pattern.  I am not perfect at not letting mistakes affect me, but I am making progress and that is all that I ask of myself!