Well, I finished Astrid's quilt with time to spare. That's the good news.
Here's the bad.
1. It's not very straight. Well the outside edges are straight but don't take a ruler to the squares.
2. There's a decapitated deer. Oops!3. I picked gingham for the back. No wonder the woman in the shop looked down her nose at me like she was thinking "novice!" when I poo-pooed the ugly stiff tie-dyed purpose-built "quilt backing" fabric. There's a reason you don't choose a soft floppy fabric with lines on it to make your wobbly shame more apparent. I gave myself a headache with Fabulon fumes trying to stiffen the material so that I could line it up straight. All to no avail. Also, by the way, why are shop women in wool and fabric shops so snooty?
4. And the biggest confession I have to make is . . .
it's not actually "quilted".
Well, it is a sandwich of backing, wadding and top but there's no stitching through the layers. It was a combination of the inadequacies of my 20 year old machine (rocking foot, what's that?) and my extreme lack of patience. I tried, I grumbled, I used a bazillion safety pins, I grumbled some more, I hand tacked it (yes, HAND TACKED), I SCREAMED (the hand tacking had brought me to the brink) and then I sewed around the edges, applied a binding (with lovely mitred corners I might add some things I can do) and called it DONE.
Oh well, it's cute (actually it's really cute) and I made a pillow case to match (with all deer keeping their heads).
I think my first will be my last though.
Big Up Respect! To the Quilters Massiv out there (because I know you're all into Ali G style West Indian Street Slang).
It looks perfectly pretty to me and if Astrid loves it that's the main thing. And did you really want it perfectly perfect, I thought we ascribed to the wabi sabi philosophy.
ReplyDeleteLucky it is for Astrid not Linus with the decapitated deer, I imagine that would bother him (after reading the last post!)
By the way your grass looks great! What type did you use mine looks terrible. (1: I think it is in the wrong spot. 2: It gets very little love.)
It's Munns Smart Grass (seeds from Bunnings) it's arid tolerant etc. It's great! I like soft grass (not Buffalo grass that cuts your legs when you sit on it) and I like to let it get all meadowy looking (not mowed too much). But we can't have anything too water thirsty. Highly recommend it. Thanks for the compliment about the quilt. I do like it lots I just think it's funny that it's not quilted!
ReplyDeleteIt's handmade & the intent is beautiful. If you really, really wanted to make it "quilted" you could do some hand ties with yarn through the layers. I'm sure you have some yarn laying around that would do, right? :)The quilting keep the layers from shifting around, for practical purposes. I'm sure it will be all fine!
ReplyDeleteThanks L. I do love it actually, I was just making fun of my trials and tribulations. I tried french knot ties in the corners but I didn't like the look of them. I've washed it (Fabulon smell yuck) and it's held up OK.I may do some hand quilting around some of the squares at some stage (but I've sort of moved on if you know what I mean)...I will probably try this again but I'll wait till I replace my ancient machine and get a rotary cutter etc...in the meantime I'll stick to knitting with all the yarn I have laying around ; )
ReplyDelete