Hawaiian Applique Part 2

Anyone interested in the trials and tribulations of making a horrible quilt should read the first part of this saga (posted Wednesday).  As part of the I-have-no-idea-what-I-was-doing aspect of this project I decided somewhere about halfway through the quilting that I would add a border of grosgrain ribbon to the edge of the quilt.  Some fabulous quilt teacher (I can't remember which one) suggested that as a way to prevent your top from stretching and getting unsquare.  In my case, I think the whole quilt was so out of whack that it didn't make much difference, but it seems like a good idea when applied correctly.  I bound the quilt in some basic green and then discovered the final ignominy.  When I hung the dratted thing on the wall to photograph, the whole middle pooched off like a beer belly!  It was horrible! I wound up wetting the whole thing down then pinning it with a bunch of straight pins straight to the wall (I can't imagine how many holes are in my drywall) and steaming and steaming and steaming some more until it flattened/shrunk up.

In any case,  here's the final quilt.  The worst part about the whole thing is that I really like the design; I like the large green Hawaiian block on the black, and the green and pink borders, and the visual impact.  I just wish the construction wasn't so awful!

Untitled Hawaiian Applique, 38" x 53", 2011

And the final straw is the size;  It's too big to make a nice sized wall-hanging and too small for a bed quilt.  I will hang it on the wall though, after all this trouble, I want to be able to see it.

I'm really glad I persevered and finished this, if only to cross one more thing off my list.   And in spite of the headache, I love the bright green and pink.

So, an update on the summer-time UFO list:

1. Purple Medallion Quilt:  Status- top pieced, needs to have faux trapunto and machine quilting.
2. Hawaiian Applique Quilt: Status-top pieced, sandwich made, some quilting done.  Needs to have Zendoodling quilting done and finished.
3. Dog Portraits: Status- two dogs thread painted, need to finish thread painting, assembly, and quilting.
4. Nativity Mosaic Quilt: Status- Mary and Joseph are mosaic-ed, everyone else needs to be tiled in and finished.
5. Visions of God Group Church Quilt: Status- All the blocks but 3 are sitting in a pile on my desk.  I need to get  three more blocks and then assemble/quilt it.
6. Large S Quilt: Status-Top is finished, needs to be blocked and quilted.
7. Small Caryl Fallert Blocks: Status-Miscellaneous blocks need to be quilted/finished and donated.
8. Grandmother's Flower Garden Project: Status-Not even sure what this is going to be, but I have been piecing a bunch of grandmother's flower garden blocks and need to do something with them.
9. Miniature Whole Cloth Quilt: Status-about 2/3ds finished, need to find some ribbon to quilt with and maybe some perl cotton.

I know the summer is progressing quickly, but completing three relatively substantial projects so far seems like pretty good progress to me.  I've been working on #9 here and there as we go, and the next big project to get back to is number #3.  The dog portraits are going to take a while though, probably several months, but we'll see.

So what about you: any of you guys have projects that just went wrong from beginning to end?  How'd you deal with them?  Complete them anyway, throw them away and start something new, set them on fire?