I precut all the pieces for another row... (from the 2015 Row-by-Rows that I have been collecting all summer). With my machine & supplies in tow, I was ready to set up my own little station. I would sit in the corner and chat some... determined to mostly sew and stay focused...
BUT...
I was seduced by fabrics... yet again.
It wasn't my fault- really.
MODA is to blame!
I had already fallen in love with the Modern Background PAPER fabrics that I used in my table runner.
Charm Squares
Modern Background- PAPER
ZEN CHIC for MODA
(The Blues are from my stash)
Anyhow, On my way to the workroom, I spotted the layer cake on the table and it demanded my attention!!!
Modern Background- INK
ZEN CHIC for MODA
I thought it paired really great with:
GRUNGE
BasicGrey by MODA
So, I decided to make a quilt for my son for his first apartment.
By mid days end, I had pieced together several of the squares with an ink and a grunge from the layer cakes.
On Sunday, I finished piecing the rest...
Sunday
Later in the day I started creating 4 squares. (I'd have this quilt finished in no time at all, in spite of all my other "to do" lists)...
Well, I didn't get too far...
but I finished up by Monday.
I had 40 precut squares in each layer cake.
Certainly big enough for a queen size quilt!
They were just precut 10" squares.
Easy Peasy, right... How long could such an easy quilt take to create???
The best laid plans...
NOT
So, On Monday- I finished up joining 4 squares.
Monday
And By Tuesday I had actually done so...
Tuesday
Next I laid them all out on my bed and started to arrange them into a quilt!
Tuesday
Once I found an arrangement I liked-
I started pinning it all together and piecing the rows...
Tuesday
Tuesday
I was really quite pleased with it all...
Things were moving along,
not as fast as I'd hoped... but still, I was only a few days in- all was well...
UNTIL WEDNESDAY THAT IS!
That is when things started to go downhill...
Even after over an hour of pressing my backing still had creases from folds...
Even worse,
No matter how much I worked at it,
the batting refused to lay flat!
I had chosen
Warm & Natural:
Needle Cotton Batting
because I had had good experiences with Warm & Natural batting in the past.
This bag said stitches could be up to 10 inches apart. At the time of purchase, I had planned to just sew on my seams and then hand stitch a knot in my pieced corners to give it a warm homey but simple feel... (Remember, I was making a "NO FUSS": really simple quickie quilt from precuts!)
Wednesday: Mid Morning
Wednesday... Later in Day
I thought I was going to go crazy... my frustration kept mounting, so I called it a day.
I started back up on Thursday.
Overly optimistically, I hoped that if I quilted & ironed out each section as I went- it would lay flat.
I WAS WRONG!
The walking foot was jumping all over the place.
The thread was slipping & knotting & skipping stitches
The quilt kept bunching and getting stuck when it hit the wall...
The stitching was just plain awful.
I tore it out...
& started over.
But to no success...
It is awful & I must accept that I cannot quilt a queen size quilt in my current space
or
with my low shank machine :(
Thursday
Reluctantly,
I have decided to reach out to a member of my modern quilt group with a long arm and ask her to quilt it.
Nothing fancy, straight lines on seams & perhaps some curved between...
I will have to tare out the 3 rows currently in place... and replace the backing and batting
(Although, I am considering giving the batting a wash to see what that does... I have prewashed batting for baby blankets in the past)
To Be Continued...
