Failure Is Okay

This is a story of failure. And failure is okay. It happens. It's an inevitable part of life. But, especially in my crafty life, I prefer to be a "glass is half full" kind of gal. About a year ago I decided to participate in a round robin for charity hosted by the amazing Julie (Jewel) of the Intrepid Thread. (On a side note, if you haven't seen her online fabric shop you really need to check it out. She always has the most amazing fabrics available!) I had never been in a round robin before, nor had I really ever heard of one before this so I was excited to try it out.

The plan was simple. Each participant would create a quilt center and then send it to the next person on the list, along with some fabric. That person would add to the quilt center and send it to the next person until it was returned to me. We were supposed to have the completed quilt tops in May for us to finish and the plan was to donate the completed quilts to Quilt Hope In. They would sell the quilts on their Etsy site and the proceeds were to be donated to Haiti relief efforts. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way.

Somewhere a long the way people dropped the ball. It happens. That's life. And I honestly don't harbor any ill will against anyone. I had completely written this quilt off until a package arrived at my doorstep on Saturday. Julie had managed to track down my quilt center and was even so kind enough as to add her round to it. She was so sweet and apologetic (unnecessarily so since none of this was her fault) and included some amazing Ty Pennington fabric for me. I know that this project has caused her a lot of stress and I feel so badly for her trying to track down missing persons in places unknown. Her heart was in the right place, organizing this round robin, and the problems we encountered were not her fault. What just adds more salt to the wound; I don't think she was able to recover her own quilt in this mess. Since I was never expecting to see this project again, it was actually a welcome surprise that made me smile. See - glass half full. My only regret from the experience is that I believe Julie has been soured on round robins, and that's a shame, because she's very talented and I would love to work with her again. Hopefully we can find another project in the future to collaborate on together.

What's the moral of the story? You've got to get out there and try new things. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they end in failure but just let go and enjoy the ride no matter the outcome. I go into every new endeavor, crafty or not, with joy and minimal expectations. Life is too short. Shit happens and even if I never received my quilt top back at least I learned some stuff from this experience. But since I have it back in my possession I think I'm still going to finish the quilt and donate it, so I am sure you will see this quilt again in the future.