Don't Mind If I Moan

I have been a bit of a moaning Minnie these last couple of weeks. About three weeks ago, just as I last blogged, I started to baste this wee Tell Me A Story quilt,

a  Polaroid quilt block quilt .

 

And that was  were my troubles started. I think I am allergic to the wadding. I have very sensitive eyes and skin, bless my little cotton socks, and as soon as I started to baste, the eyes started streaming. Now, cast your mind back,I wanted to avoid shopping in person in my local fabric shop (non quilting, just an Aladdin's cave shop), due to Covid and all that jazz, the shop is very small and very crammed. I was reluctant for my husband to go in either. I usually buy an 80/20 wadding there. So instead I ordered, from my local when I am in London, proper quilting shop,  some 100% cotton wadding. And therein lies my mistake. My eyes were streaming, itching and my whole fact felt alive. Once it is incased, I am fine with it, just the actually basting. I then, because I didn't feel well, wanted to clean the whole house and empty all the cupboards, because I was in a bad mood. The house itself is minimalist in style and fairly dust free. The cupboards, or my cupboards, are another story. Another two weeks of misery.

Sorry for moaning and thanks for listening.

The state of play with my quilt now is that it is quilted and the binding is sewn on. We are fast approaching a finish. Just the bringing in the sheaves, as I think of burying the thread ends and the binding and we are done. But the quilt has changed . This is it as you last saw it . 

The more observant of you may notice a subtle slight of hand in the top row. The quilt polaroid  blocks were originally for me, but then I thought it would make a good story quilt.  One of the blocks wasn't ringing true. And funnily enough it was one I had done myself. I knew it didn't quite gel but I had gone ahead with the blocks I had. There had been some other blocks, this was from a Bee. There had been a perfect holly hobbie block, but I had used it in another project. The more I looked at the French patisserie block, the more I didn't like it. Nothing wrong with French patisserie, just the polaroid photos  were too fussy and 

 Little Miss R likes bears and stories about bears. I had a fq of Japanese echino featuring big brown bears, it was perfect. 

I had no white kona left, but I used a some white Liberty linen to frame the bears and then a green kona to surround them. 

 Now for the substitution. The quilt was already quilted. I started to unpick the top row from the wadding and backing. Very quickly my eyes decided that was a wrong thing to do, a very bad thing to do. So, I cut out the black fabric square, leaving a little margin at the sides, and then tried to over sew the bears on top. It is far from perfect, but I am happy enough. For a botch, it isn't too badly botched. The corners are lifting a little with the bulk, but I will try to slip stitch them tighter. There is a bit of a pleat in the backing at that point, buy hey ho and on we go. It is for family, don't they say the cobblers children go unshod? Funnily enough my great great grandfather was a shoe maker and they say he walked from Co Mayo to Belfast in bare (not bear) feet. He only put his boots on at the towns to save his shoe leather.

I had previously just quilted around the polaroid photos to accent them. The substitution meant I had to do stitching in the ditch to anchor the block. I used an aurifil silver grey thread as I didn't want the stitching to show up in the back.

So, hoping for a finish this week then an outing for photos. Unfortunately I have another pack of the wadding for my own quilt. I might rope in my husband to help with that one.

I don’t know why I look so miserable in this photo , I am pleased really , if I do have baggy eyes. 

Hope you are all well, and safe.

Helen, x