So my man took me to the post office on Friday and we got Monkey Quilt safely off to its destination, but whilst we were out I received some awful news... Postage deadline for Rocket Boy is on Monday morning, and if that wasn't bad enough, postage deadline for Beatles/Peace/psychedelia as yet un-named quilt is Friday morning. FRIDAY MORNING. Bugger. Can I get Rocket Boy done in a weekend? Can I get as-yet-un-named done in FOUR DAYS?
Well, as I've said before, my mantra is "sod it, I'll give it a go"...
However as I've also said before, I'm crap and crash after doing anything. The trip to the post office and to Tescos (other supermarkets are available.. well actually there's only one other supermarket available up here..) was enough to wipe me out for the rest of Friday.
Thankfully I had gotten Rocket Boy basted on Wednesday - nightmare triangles strike again. What is my problem with a seemly harmless shape? I explained to my man, "if you had a grid made of metal and you cut it across the diagonal what happens to the grid of metal?" You've weakened the structure. "So when you then try to use the grid and put pressure on the edges what happens?" Well its weakened so it will move and wont be as stable. Ohhhh... Yup. Triangles stretch all over the shop. Basting wasn't easy. Normally I pull everything tight to try and make sure all the layers are flat and there wont be any shifting about whilst I man-handle the whole bundle time and time again through a tiny gap in the sewing machine... This time I had to be super careful not to pull it tight or the whole kit and caboodle would distort.
On Thursday I did the quilting. Amazingly, joyously, the whole thing quilted with no puck-ups at all! I couldn't believe it! I stuck to nice and simple straight lines going across the opposite diagonal to the bulk of the triangles. I was going to do a lot more of them, but I decided that if I made the gaps between the lines any smaller I would seriously risk pushing my luck with the no puck-ups status. So, I did a few lines in the ditches. Which wasn't necessarily the brightest of ideas as it really brought home just how mis-matched my triangles had turned out... But I'd started so I finished...
I'd decided that I'd follow peoples advice and try using different coloured threads, top to match top, bobbin to match backing. I think that perhaps others had advised never using different coloured threads as you could end up with the wrong colour showing up on the wrong side. Which I did. I tried adjusting the machine tension, but no matter what setting I used the top thread always poked through to the back. Maybe if I was a skilled seamstress and experienced quilter who knew what they were doing that might not have been acceptable. But I'm neither and you know what? I kind of like it!
I left the embroidered square free of quilting. Does anyone quilt over embroidery? I've not seen it done... So I didn't. Looking at it now I wish I had stuffed the square with a lot more, it seems a bit bare to me.
After being utterly useless the rest of Friday and Saturday morning, I finally felt awake enough to get on with things. The binding went swimmingly. Sorry mum, I know you don't like gingham, but I think it adds to the retro theme! I can hardly believe it myself, but I actually managed to do the binding all in one go. Machine stitched onto front, hand stitched onto back. My hand stitching averaged out at 55 mins a side... Which seems like forever written out like that, but I had crappy Christmas films on the box and my lovely auntie for company and fetching me cups of tea, so it honestly flew by.
No comments:
Post a Comment