Tuesday 8 November 2011

On days like this....

So last night I loaded a commission quilt on the beast and given my son and his girlfriend now sleep next to the room I have the beast in, I thought to myself that I'd get it quilted in the morning - so as not to disturb them, you understand - and then I can be a bit domesticated in the afternoon - maybe hoover up the dust wombats (they're waaaaaay past bunnies).

My client wanted an all over meander, avoiding the appliqued train - so, started quilting this morning and it's going really well....I'm meandering like a good thing and avoiding the applique...then I thought I could maybe quilt a line about 1/4" from the train to really make it pop......so started to do that and unfortunately my 1/4" line became anywhere between 1/8" - 1" from the train....oh oh, stop doing that, unpick.  Start meandering again.....

I finished a pass and noticed that the top thread was running really well, a bit too well really, and when I went to cut the threads, I put my hand underneath the quilt and it didn't feel right - felt a bit fuzzy - so eased off the tension on the quilt so I could take a good look underneath......and here's what I saw..


OMG -  the correct terms for this sort of happening is 'eyelashes' - and these eyelashes belong on the main characters in 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert', not on the back of my clients' quilt.  When I was unpicking my sort of 1/4" line, I must have inadvertently knocked the top thread out of the tension spring - aaaagh.

It was pretty easy to unpick, thank goodness, and it left a nice little pile of thread



Retensioned the top thread and off I went again - without incident this time...

gordon bennett i take a rotten photo!

here's the back - plain red and while it's not obvious, the thread i've used is variegated blues, through purple to red


 - but it totally put me off hoovering those wombats.  Instead, I gave the beast a thorough clean and oil, put in a new needle and loaded another quilt - this one is going in my Etsy shop.  Once this one's done, I have another commission quilting job, so looks like those wombats may become cows before I get to them.
Top and backing loaded and just waiting for me to attach the batting before I can pull the top up and start quilting.
I'll blog about this quilt once I've got it quilted.

6 comments:

  1. On days like this, you sit out in the garden with a nice glass of wine or your favourite cocktail, and a box of gourmet choccies and decide you'll try again tomorrow.

    Obviously, you're a better person than I am, as you continued today. But I'm glad to hear that you ignored the vacuuming. Otherwise, I think you might have been beyond saving :)

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  2. Eeek! That looks a tad scary, and rather time consuming to unpick... Still, glad you were able to rescue it (and I can quite see how it would have put you off conquering the dust wombats, personally, I just started naming mine)

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  3. Your patience knows no bounds! Sadly, in circumstances such as this - I seem to find vacuuming actually very alluring - but it's really just a procrastinating manoeuvre! At least the 'White Hares' get sucked up, up and away (we have a constantly moulting white Labrador!)

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  4. Sometimes you just need a break! I am afraid I am on the dust devils today - bunnies and wombats are far too cuddly . . .

    Pomona x

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  5. Yikes! Sorry about those eyelashes! I am glad they were not to bad to remove, but still aggravating to say the least!

    I don't even want to know what my dust bunnies would be called. Cleaning can always wait another day, right?

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  6. Oh I know that feeling! Looks great now that it is all done though

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