As the story goes, the day starts out perfect. Yes, I have a deep sexy voice for absolutely no reason, BUT . . it's still a great day. I wake before my sweetie leaves, buy airplane tickets for two trips, write a personal blog entry, and check out the scraps leftover from quilting the Friendship Quilt. It looks like there may be enough to make a chair cushion using a pillow form that I removed from an old sofa pillow when Mister bought new ones a couple of months ago. It means I get to sew on something simple and fun for a little while. I'm off to the studio. Again -- it goes superb. I soon have a great cushion for my studio chair -- all it needs is to have the opening hand stitched closed. Easy peasy. I'll just put it with the two quilts to bind and get to it this evening. 
Now, I need to put the Christmas Quilt on the frame and get it started so I tackle that and then get a call from my daughter just as I'm starting to quilt. It's 11:00 a.m. before I get back to it so I settle in and give it a whirl. Right off the bat I have long stitches. I play with the speed a bit and soon the stitches look great and I'm zooming along until suddenly the thread bunches up and breaks. It does it several times and then it seems as though it worked through whatever was bothering it and I'm cruising along until the bobbin runs out. As soon as I have the new bobbin in -- it does the bunching and breaking thing again. It does it about 4 times and I'm ready to scream when it stops and just cruises along again until the bobbin runs out. I get to repeat this whole process with each of the 5 bobbins that I wound ahead of time. Ugh. How crazy is this? The machine is clean, the tension is wonderful, the stitches are beautiful -- it just doesn't like the first half of the bobbin. Grrrr.
Coming to the block that Debi made, I am being oh so careful not to catch the edges and sew them down. Apparently not careful enough as I catch the corner of the pinwheel and down through the darning foot hole it goes. And it's in there good. It takes me at least 10 minutes to get it back out without putting a hole in the quilt or the pinwheel. Oh my. What next?
I fill another bobbin and am sewing along (yes, with the same issue) and suddenly I notice that the backing is almost out. I am on the last of it. What? I still have at least 6-7 inches of quilt to do and about 2 inches of backing after the row I just turned put in place. Oh my gosh. What to do, what to do? I know I still have fabric left from making the backing so I go and get it, sew two strips together and stare at the frame, trying to figure out how to attach it to the back without taking the whole dang thing off the frame. Back into the house I go for a t.v. tray. I grab my Elna (cos she is not in a cabinet at the moment) and set her on the tray. If I put it close enough and slide it along, I think I can attach the strip to the back without removing the quilt. I just have to unroll the stitched part enough to get the backing close to the machine. I can do this.
Quick as can be, I have a pieced attached to the back and I am ready to reroll the quilt and try again. I no sooner stitch about 5 inches when I discover that I have a pucker underneath. What the heck? I obviously didn't pull the back taught enough when I reloaded it. Out comes the ripper and I sit and rip while leaving the quilt on the frame. After about 20 minutes, all the quilting in that section is out and I am ready to try again. It goes well until I have to switch out bobbins and then the bunching and breaking starts again. Fortunately I only have 3 lengths of the quilt left so I just work through it and as always, it behaves for the end. FINALLY. It is finished and off the frame. Oh my.
A quick run in the house to trim the edges and then back to the studio to put the label and binding on. For some reason, that goes well and at 6:00, I am able to turn the studio lights off and head inside. This has been one heck of a day but I feel good for persevering and managing to not lose my cool. This redhead didn't even mutter a single cuss word the entire time --- although I certainly thought them. Now to get the hand work done and put this on the bed for the season. Whew. What a day.
Amazing. Astounding and Awesome. Amazing that you persevered through all the set backs. Astounding ability to get the back sewn while still in frame. And a totally awesome job to get it done in one day !
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you. Believe me there were moments. . .
DeleteI'm in awe! You just figured it ALL out. Hurray for persevering . . . most would not have. You have learned your lesson well Grasshopper. Now I understand what you meant in your email. Hugs, Allison
ReplyDeleteThis learning curve can be a beast for sure. Red hair doesn't help. Thank you Master.
DeleteI think I may have been thinking about taking up drinking as a hobby after the first 5 bobbins!!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on a very productive day. . . .and for not giving up in the face of multiple road blocks.
The quilt is awesome.
Drinking, quilt murder, machine murder, many things came to mind, lol. I am indeed happy I didn't though because I LOVE the quilt.
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