The Ghost of Christmas Past

It was totally accidental that I came across this Christmas wall hanging today. I made it sometime around ten years ago, and was so unhappy with it when finished that I never hung it.

It was a pattern from I-can't-remember-where . . . I've blotted it out of my mind. The size is 30" x 30" and it's basically pieced with machine appliqued green holly leaves and yellow stars.

That big plain square in the middle is just too out there, in your face, and unpleasant. I probably should have used a green or red fabric for it instead of the lighter one. Or appliqued some more holly leaves . . . or stars . . . or something on it. That would have helped. Maybe.

As you can see by this picture, the yellow stars were cut from a very thin fabric and the print of the square they're appliqued onto shows right through the stars. Not good. Poor planning.

Please notice the red and green triangles that form the inner border. There are a whole lot of those little buggers that I had to cut and then piece together for the four sides. Got them all done . . . and they were WAY TOO BIG TO FIT. There was a big mistake in the cutting instructions for the triangles in the pattern. I tried reducing the number of triangles, but that didn't work. So there was nothing to do but take them all apart, figure out the size they should have been cut in the first place, trim them down and put them back together.

Have I ever mentioned that math isn't my strong suit? My figures were incorrect and they were still too big the second time around. One more time. Took them apart (all four rows of them) and cut each triangle piece to a new, yet smaller size. I was a little more intelligent the third time when putting them back together. I did only one side, instead of all four, to be sure I had it right that time.

By then, I was pretty sure I didn't like the wall hanging much anymore.

Since I had machine appliqued the leaves and stars, I went ahead and machine quilted the rest of it. Did a lot of stitching in the ditch and way too much stippling in all the areas of dark green . . . which didn't show up for beans! (But that may have been all for the good because I was just learning to stipple/meander at the time and I've got to admit it isn't pretty.)

I got as far as sewing a hanging sleeve on the back of it, and I can remember thinking as I finished the last few stitches that I was NEVER going to hang the blasted thing . . . and I didn't. It's been folded up and hidden away for years until I came upon it today. Curious that I found it right now during the holiday season. A real ghost of Christmas past come back to haunt me!