I am overwhelmed by all your lovely comments yesterday - thank you very much! I'll be coming back to you in due course (and poking my nose in around your blogs too, if you don't mind). You can still leave a comment for me as I won't be closing the draw for your own autographed copy of Pick Four until the end of the week.
Whilst you are at a loose end today, though, waiting for me to finish unpicking my unsuccessful attempt at FMQ at the weekend (it is taking bloody hours - note to self for future reference - if you are unsure about any aspect of your quilting do NOT just plough on regardless), tootle on over to Mary at Quilt Hollow who is your host for today for Sue Abrey's Pick Four bloghop.
Move along - nothing to see here - unpicking baaaaaad quilting is not a spectator sport!
If I were quilting by machine, the pile of pickings would be higher than that I assure you!
ReplyDeleteNot only is it not a spectator sport, I never feel it's a participator sport either. It feels more like something you might be given at school as a detention!
ReplyDeleteI hand quilt so the unpicking is minimal!
ReplyDeleteI don't like ripping out stitches either, but it's part of the craft for most of us I think. I always regret all of the thread I wasted.
ReplyDeleteIf I am honest, Julie, the pile had been larger but I threw an awful lot away before I thought of taking a pic!
ReplyDeleteProbably more effective as a deterrent than doing lines, Sue! I only got one detention though, AND later on I was deputy head girl! Put that in your fact file!
Hmph - this is a good case for hand quilting, Mystica, but I hope that when I have the knack it will be a deal sight quicker!
Now you've mentioned the cost, Joanna, that is something else I have to feel peeved about! ;)
I saw this idea, where was it? Anyway the gal took 8"x11" fabric and made quilt sandwiches out of them. When she finished using them to try out a new design she would stick them in a binder in one of those plastic sleeves so she could flip through her designs when she needed ideas and remember the great ones she'd tried before.
ReplyDeleteWhat might be a neat idea to add to that would to take a orphan block from the quilt your working on or random strips of the quilt you're working on - small but showing all the different colors and make your practice quilt sandwich out of that, Then you could really get a feel for how the thread will look on the fabrics you really used.
I do promise it gets easier. Freemotion quilting is worth every moment and that's from someone who spent the last time I sat down to do it wasting hours and hours trying to get a defective needle to stop breaking threads. Didn't know it was a defective needle mind you.
Whoa - brilliant idea alert! Not only as a reference as to what-works-well, S&S, but as a history of what you've done. Of course I have an orphan block on Stepping Stones anyway (what a sad phrase that is!) but otherwise it's not a hardship to put scraps & spare batting together as a 'trier', is it?
ReplyDeleteI have a vague memory of someone in my family doing something similar with knitting - a copy of the pattern, the tension square (thus showing the wool) and a photo of the recipient in the finished item. Darn - this will bug me until I think of who this is...
Where I can't quite square the circle with my FMQ is that I KNOW it's not great - it's ok - but I don't want to devalue Stepping Stones (which will be with me for time to come) with something that looks a bit so-so on the quilting - especially as the piecing of the top has come together so well (Sue's great instructions to thank there).
How cross were you when you realised that it was a dicey needle at fault for thread breaking??
Oh I felt like an idiot. I've been quilting for 3 1/2 years now and I know they say always check your needle, but in the 150+ needles I've gone through I've never had a defective one. This was a stronger more expensive needle, an HLX5, which costs a bit more so I was really thrown for a loop.
ReplyDeleteBeing at the stage of quilting where my rough handling on the plate can PING a needle rather too frequently, I'd be reluctant to invest in 'more expensive' even it if means 'stronger' - I should learn not to yank!
ReplyDeleteI guess like all manufactured items, a faulty one gets thrown up every now and again and doesn't get picked up on quality control - but you aren't to know, and I certainly wouldn't think to check that it was the needle and not the machine/tension/operator incompetence etc etc