The Quilt that fought back.

Do you ever have that project that you are so excited to get done, but it fights you every step of the way?
I had one of those last weekend.  I was so pumped because my son actually requested a wall hanging after seeing my finished butterfly.  He pulled up an image from his favorite video game (Kingdom Hearts) and asked if it was possible. It is the symbol of the Heartless and is kind of a heart with thorns crossing in the middle.
"Anything is possible" I cheered.  I  handed him some graph paper and a pencil and told him to make it work.

And he did!
He converted this symbol into little squares and triangles in the best way.  I was so excited that he actually wanted something that we picked out the fabric and got started right away.
The red that we found was in my "less than a yard" bin and I was worried about my math being wrong. After calculations, it was an almost exact match.  Phew!  But then... duh duh dum... my first cut was off. What was I thinking?!?  I cut a full 2 inch strip instead of allowing for the seam allowances and cutting 2.5 inches.  Aaarrggg.  Welp, I guess it would have to be smaller than planned.  No biggie.

I started cutting into the black fabric (which I had plenty of). It felt a bit off on texture.  It was one of those pieces that I had purchased when I first started quilting and was not totally sure if it was 100% cotton or not.  Short of lighting it on fire, I really am still not sure how to tell.  It was just for a wall hanging, so I figured it wouldn't matter.  I won't be using it for a bed quilt ever, so I might as well use it for something. It was a frayer (don't care if that is not a word, it is now).  And when working with 2 inch squares a little fraying makes a big difference.  Good thing I had lots of it, I tossed quite a few just because they weren't working right or they lost too many threads in the handling.

Time for laying out the rows and putting them together.  Why are the two in the middle so short?  Ack.  Forgot the darn seam allowance ...AGAIN!  There was no way I was going to be able to rip seams from that black fabric without tearing it apart.  New rows it is, and because I had to cut the red smaller than originally planned, I had a little extra.  :)
Finally I get all of the rows together and minus a few points being off, it looks good.  He asked that it be quilted to look like cracked glass.  Oh goodness.  I ended up doing a pointy meander with angles instead of curves.  I think it turned out pretty good overall despite its best efforts to defeat me.

Sorry for the terrible photo.  He wanted it hanging in his poorly lit room right away.

Have you ever finished that project that seemed determined to fight you every step of the way?  Were you just glad to get it done?  Or did it end up in the scrap bin?

Linking up with:
Fabric Frenzy Friday at Fort Worth Fabric Studio