A "Garden Path" to Frustration!

Sometimes I think that brilliance borders on insanity. This month's issue of The Quilter Magazine has a pattern for "Garden Path Place mats." Being the imaginative (and somewhat deranged) person that I am, I thought it would be great to use the roses of the pattern in a border around my mystery/"Triple Play" quilt. Sounds like a beautiful touch doesn't it? Now, if only Pam Bono hadn't left a couple of things out of the pattern! For instance, each of the pieces get cut down by 30%! Do you know how painful it is to see so many scraps discarded on the floor? OH THE PAIN! Alright, so maybe I'm being a little dramatic. In all seriousness though, it is a lot of wasted fabric, but I suppose it would be a rather finicky pattern if you cut it any other way.
The other tip, or secret, that Pam doesn't share is how long it takes to piece those roses together! I set a small goal for myself today. I thought, "I'll just put 10 roses together. It should only take a couple of hours...right?" WRONG! There are 21 pieces to the rose. I only made it through 12 of them.
Naturally, I still think that it would really take the mystery quilt to the next level with those roses in a border. Of course, that means I'll have to keep working on them, and hopefully get 25 of them (you know-to really make the border spectacular). I just need to plan more time to make them I guess. It's a good thing that I still have three months until the mystery quilt show and tell.
Now I just need to figure out whether this whole scheme is inspiration or insanity...