Christmas Sweaters

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV 

I had picked up the snowman/nature stripe fabric in this quilt at my local quilt shop, together with the pine fabric that coordinated with the pine in the snowman fabric. At home, I pulled out what remained of the white on red Christmas tree fabric that had been used in the Ribbons and Stars Christmas quilt, as a third coordinate for a 3-yard quilt. I was determined to make my niece a snuggle quilt, with fleece/minky backing, for her birthday in October so that she could enjoy it throughout the Christmas season, rather than waiting until Christmas to receive it. 
Having two directional prints, I felt I needed a pattern that had 2 focus fabrics, with large enough pieces to display the features of each. So I decided on Delight, from the book, The Magic of 3-Yard Quilts. I failed to really take into consideration, however, that the size of the squares did not really line up with the size of the stripes in the snowman fabric, with the result that many snowmen ended up decapitated. Nor did I account for the fact that the snowman fabric is used in the border, so there are both snowmen and deer/moose lying on their sides in the top and bottom borders. I managed to avoid that issue with the red Christmas tree fabric, however, due to the fact that I was cutting from remnants of a previous project, and managed to have pieces that were going in the correct direction for all 4 borders. 
But the direction of the border fabric wasn't the worst problem. The fact was that my fabric choices really didn't work well with this pattern. When I put the first couple of blocks together, I was so disappointed. I didn't like how it had turned out at all. The lightest fabric was supposed to be where I put the darkest fabric - the green on black pine - and it would have created sort of a shadow effect. But my lightest fabric - the snowman stripe, wouldn't have worked in that position. The shadow effect was totally lost, and I was left with an ugly mishmash of fabric pieces that didn't really pull together at all. And I had already cut the fabric for this quilt. I had a decision to make: try to see if I could make the cut pieces work in a different pattern (not likely), buy new fabric and start all over again (time and money), or just continue with this one and hope that it turned out better than I thought. 
I opted for the third option. And it grew on me. I ended up actually liking the quilt. With both the snowman and the Christmas tree fabric in rows, they reminded me of Christmas sweaters - and not ugly Christmas sweaters - I have some very nice Christmas sweaters - hence the name.

I quilted it with the Snow Winds pantograph.

Granted, if I had to do it over again, I likely would have used a different pattern. Or different fabric, or both. But I still like it, and Julie was very happy with it. She started snuggling with it right away. 
Life can often be like that quilt - not turning out the way we had hoped or planned, leaving us frustrated, disappointed and not knowing what to do about it. But we have a God who cares about us and has a plan for our lives, as the verse at the beginning of this post says. We may not always understand the direction He is leading in, and things don't always appear to be going the way we had hoped. But He is still in control, and while we may not understand the trials and disappointments we experience in this life, He has promised, 
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 NKJV
One of my favourite authors, Ellen G. White, has this to say in her book, The Ministry of Healing:

"In the future life the mysteries that here have annoyed and disappointed us will be made plain. We shall see that our seemingly unanswered prayers and disappointed hopes have been among our greatest blessings." (page 474)

So stay faithful to the God who has a plan for your life and will work things out for the best, even though appearances may be to the contrary. Look up and look forward to that time when all will be explained.