not always as we expect

Sometimes projects go differently than we anticipate them. Sometimes ideas don't become our reality. How do we move forward without frustration? Ask for help? I did, but the more I think about it, the more I realize, this project may just have to get folded up and put away - at least for a while. I'm not terribly upset, I'm frustrated that I put a lot of time into it and it looks beautiful, but it's too distorted to really become what I had hoped for. I have not given up on thread painting by any stretch. I've already started a new project and will have pictures to share in a day or two and I did learn a tremendous amount on this one. Who knows, I might end up cutting out the embroidery and using it some other way, I may try to iron it out a little more than I have already tried a slightly different way. (Thanks to advice from a much more experienced quilter than me) AND I may just make do with it the way it is and finish it. I had high hopes of giving this to someone very special, and hopefully, something else will manifest through it. So, today, I'm frustrated and disappointed, but grateful that I learned so much and next time, I think I'm going to try starching my fabric AND using 3 layers of stabilizer verses two and maybe I'll plan on doing it on tulle and then attaching that to the bigger fabric. I have learned a lot of what not to do and yet another lesson in letting go of expectations. A lesson most of us can always stand to learn again. Thankfully, we live and learn and each quilt is a journey to the next. I was super worried I would be creatively blocked because I often can't start a new project without finishing the next. This is quality I find rather aggravating about myself since I could make so much more stuff, but then I figure I wouldn't end up getting very much finished because I'm always thinking of new things to make and new projects. So maybe I'm growing as a quilter and can learn to better live with those UFO's... I'm open to any suggestions you all may have as to how to proceed. The only truly disappointing thing to me concerning this quilt is I had high hopes of making my goal of 6 quilts this year and this one is number 5 and it is most likely not going to get finished before the new year, but at least I got pretty close. 5 1/2 isn't too bad...