Aw, I'm sorry you were feeling so bad about yourself because of this. Lots of quilting techniques come easy to me too, but then there are those that I don't quite get the first few times and I struggle until I finally do. Paper-piecing was a nightmare for me at first, but then it suddenly "clicked" and it's been ok ever since. M-quing was the same. I screamed, cussed and probably threw a few things in the beginning. LOL I got myself into more messes with thread knotting up, puckers, sloppy stitches, and I even had the tension off so bad once that my thread kept flying off the holder hard enough to hit the wall!!! :lol: I nearly quit, many times. But I just wanted to learn it soooo badly, that I stuck to it and worked out the kinks one by one. I'm stubborn that way. LOL
I'm so glad you're out from under the stress of having to finish all these before Christmas all by your lonesome self. What a great friend you have!!! Now maybe you can concentrate on simply learning the process. Take each issue you have with it one at a time and tackle it until you know what you're doing wrong. Eventually you'll be sailing through it and producing results you never knew you had in you! :D