The heat is on. In our household anyway. Both in a physical and metaphysical sense. It is freezing outside, thank goodness for all these quilts. And, in a metaphysical sense the heat is on too. Gentle pressure is being put on me to finish up projects. I admit it, I AM DROWNING in unfinished and even unstarted projects. Time to clear the decks.
I couldn't sleep last night with the excitement. The adrenalin was flowing. Up early, well at 8.30 and got stuck straight in with a cup of tea in bed and another couple of chapters of my Ben Elton book. Very good, can't remember the title, but very good. Then got up to spend the day sewing.
First I unfortunately had to tidy up. One of us in our house is tidy and one of us isn't. Actually two of us are tidy in our house and one of us isn't but is getting better. I hauled all the bags of fabric and scrapbooking stuff from one end of the room to the other and overflowed into the next room and pulled out the table. Doesn't the back of the table get dusty?
The morning was spent piecing the back, ironing and basting. I think I will have to "youtube" basting. I really do think I make it more difficult for myself. I ironed the backing into submission, sprayed it with the spray glue and laid the rested wool wadding on top, When I took a peek underneath it was all snarled up and creased.
HOW does that happen?
Is there some special incantation I should be chanting over the table?
It was seriously tempting to leave it as a tablecloth.
It takes for ages to fix it, and by that stage all the stickiness gets peeled off! Luckily the top layer behaved itself better. So, having mastered my postgraduate course in quilt wrangling, I started to quilt. To me the quilt is really very busy so the quilting needs to be simple. Straight lines again.
I like straight lines, I do. I also just haven't explored fmq with my new machine yet. I just quilt with the ordinary foot and the feed dogs in the normal position. I hesitate to say my throat is deeper compared to before. (Why are there so many innuendos in all crafts?) My Pfaff seems to cope ok but I will have to investigate proper quilting. I don't want to labour it too hard.
So, I'm a third of the way through quilting 5 straight lines down the centre of each block. The "stuff" is all rammed back in the room, albeit rammed in a more organised way. And feeling on a high, I trimmed my coin quilt and my Mrs Hot Hot Hot quilt ready for binding.
Long may this energy spurt continue. Time now to rest the shoulders and have one of these.
Helen x
I couldn't sleep last night with the excitement. The adrenalin was flowing. Up early, well at 8.30 and got stuck straight in with a cup of tea in bed and another couple of chapters of my Ben Elton book. Very good, can't remember the title, but very good. Then got up to spend the day sewing.
First I unfortunately had to tidy up. One of us in our house is tidy and one of us isn't. Actually two of us are tidy in our house and one of us isn't but is getting better. I hauled all the bags of fabric and scrapbooking stuff from one end of the room to the other and overflowed into the next room and pulled out the table. Doesn't the back of the table get dusty?
The morning was spent piecing the back, ironing and basting. I think I will have to "youtube" basting. I really do think I make it more difficult for myself. I ironed the backing into submission, sprayed it with the spray glue and laid the rested wool wadding on top, When I took a peek underneath it was all snarled up and creased.
HOW does that happen?
Is there some special incantation I should be chanting over the table?
It was seriously tempting to leave it as a tablecloth.
It takes for ages to fix it, and by that stage all the stickiness gets peeled off! Luckily the top layer behaved itself better. So, having mastered my postgraduate course in quilt wrangling, I started to quilt. To me the quilt is really very busy so the quilting needs to be simple. Straight lines again.
I like straight lines, I do. I also just haven't explored fmq with my new machine yet. I just quilt with the ordinary foot and the feed dogs in the normal position. I hesitate to say my throat is deeper compared to before. (Why are there so many innuendos in all crafts?) My Pfaff seems to cope ok but I will have to investigate proper quilting. I don't want to labour it too hard.
So, I'm a third of the way through quilting 5 straight lines down the centre of each block. The "stuff" is all rammed back in the room, albeit rammed in a more organised way. And feeling on a high, I trimmed my coin quilt and my Mrs Hot Hot Hot quilt ready for binding.
Long may this energy spurt continue. Time now to rest the shoulders and have one of these.
Helen x
Go Helen!! I use parcel tape to tape my stretched out backing to the kitchen floor (the brilliant thing about our kitchen laminate is that it has straight lines too, so I use it to make sure the quilt is square) - and baste the quilt there. My quilts are (very) far from perfect but it definitely makes them easier to baste, even though it is a really b*****r on the knees.
ReplyDeleteYou can do it!!! I hope you take enough breaks to keep your shoulders happy so that you can keep up this great momentum. It will be great to celebrate some quilt finished with you. :)
ReplyDeleteBAHAHA!! throat is deeper!!! I'm stilling laughing my ass, er head off. We badly need to be a little more FUN in QBL, risqué! As for tea after that hard day's work, wine my dear!! :-) I was thinking how once one is retired early (I always add the adverb "early" on, as I am NOT in the retired category of white-haired people), one moves at a slower pace. THAT is why it seems we got more done when we worked full time...my story and I'm sticking to it.
ReplyDeleteI'm a floor baster - can't bend over tables or the back comes at me! I saw on Craftsy Ann Peterson recommends pressing the back and then the front of the quilt sandwich after spray basting before quilting to make sure it is is flat all the way!
ReplyDeleteI'm a table baster too. I've found using giant bulldog clips around the edge of the table helps keep all three layers flat and evenly taut. But it seems to me there isn't a perfect basting method. The main thing is to get on and do it, so 'go Helen!'
ReplyDeleteYou go girl. Looking forward to seeing the finish....but keep remembering to stop for tea and books .
ReplyDeleteYour days just fill up when you don't go to work, don't they, you'll soon wonder how on earth you ever fitted work in!
ReplyDeleteV x
Yeah! Once you started, just looking ahead and forget the rest!! Enjoy!!
ReplyDelete