Quilting Tired and in a Hurry

I think the title probably says everything you need to know. Here's the story nonetheless.

I had this fabulous quilt top I've had finished since March. I was really worried about how I would quilt it so I set it aside. I was thinking of doing something custom, a new thing for me. So it sat for months and months. At times I was busy traveling so I didn't want to get it started only to let it sit, so it sat some more. Last week I loaded it on the longarm frame.

When I loaded it on the frame, I didn't have a plan yet on how I would quilt it but I thought I could come up with something. I pulled out books, looked at other quilts in magazines, photos I've taken...all around just studying up. I pulled out my dry erase board and started practicing varying designs. I thought I could do some individual designs in each block but there were so many blocks I thought I'd better do something else.

After looking at the quilt on the frame I thought I didn't want to have it heavily quilted because I wanted the fabrics to show so I thought I'd do an overall design. So I made several bobbins and started a few practice stitches on the side. And here is when the frustration set in. I kept getting a mangled nest on the underside of the fabric. I looked at the tension, tried various things and finally went and looked this up on the computer. Of course there was the answer! I hadn't pulled the thread through into the tension discs so problem solved.

But....by now I was tired and was in a hurry because the new Sherlock Holmes on PBS was going to be on and I wanted to watch it. But...did I think to stop? Noooo....wish I did because what I ended up doing was an overall meander. It doesn't look hideous but I think it could have been so much better with something else. All that time I put into making the top and I did a disservice to the quilt by being tired and in a hurry. Lesson learned.

P.S. I'll post a photo after I get the binding on.