Life Happens

Lots of unexpected things in my life lately, but not much sewing.

1.  I fell and broke my toe.  All healed now.

2.  I came down with shingles, but due to a vaccination several years ago it was mild.  The worst of it was the dragging lethargy and general malaise after the rash healed.  Too wussy to sew.

3.  My first great-grandchild was born four weeks early during the big Seattle snowstorm.  He was 6 lb 8 oz so all is good.  Can't wait to snuggle him.

His dad is responsible for the embedded caption!

4.  Though not unexpected, I went to CA for a week to shop with my daughter and grand-daughter for her (gr-dau's) wedding...and a little beach time.

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The above was scheduled to be automatically posted two weeks ago and never went out.  I probably forgot to click the "publish" button.  I am now home from California where I had a wonderful five days.  I got a beautiful dress, walked the beach, visited the venue where the wedding will take place, and had a great time with family.

5.  My computer went to the shop for more memory.  Withdrawal!  Wish my brain could get some more memory.

Having no computer to suck up my time I spent a lot of time sewing.  I made a stuffed dog for the baby (still have to purchase some stuffing).  I was also reminded of the reason that I usually don't make stuffed animals!  Some of the seams are incredibly challenging.

I made a block for my daughter's mother-in-law's birthday quilt.

I am also stitching a special pillow for granddaughter's wedding shower.  I know...same pattern.  I saw it on Pinterest with no attribution and created different sized versions.  It is a simple pattern, but the Flying Geese mean three points from each goose had to be watched to prevent them from being "chopped," so it required some careful planning.

TIP:  On the unpieced fabric that borders the geese I folded under a 1/4 inch seam allowance and starched it with a paint brush. Press.  This left a very sharp crease.  I put Elmer's Clear glue on the seam allowance of the Flying Geese and laid the folded edge of the unpieced fabric onto the seam allowance of the geese being careful to come to the exact point of each triangle.  Press.  Some of the glue catches the non-seam-allowance fabric of the unpieced fabric and you have to separate that so you can fold it back to see the crease line where you will stitch.

The second block is the pillow cover, which is much larger (18"x18") than the first block (fall motif), and I am quilting it.  The stitching really brings it alive.  The flowers puff and the birds look ready to fly.  The black background is completely flattened.  I haven't done the geese yet.

Of course my quilt is back in "hold" mode, folded up on the bed waiting for me to quilt the borders.  Sometimes life happens and takes control.  I hope 2019 will settle down now and let me drive for awhile.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you only good things this week, unexpected or otherwise.

Puzzling Pleats

I got a pleat in my backing.  I haven't done that in years.  The stitching in the ditch must take the blame, and it is just dumb luck that I discovered it before it was too late.

How does it happen?  It begins with the laying out of the backing when preparing the sandwich.  The backing is laid down first and must be secured snuggly.  Not too loose.  Not too tight.  Just right.  If you work on a carpet you can pin the edges down.  I work on my uncovered ironing board, on plywood.  I tape the edges with blue painter's tape.  It works like a charm...mostly.

I don't know how I blew it this time, but fortunately it was a very tiny pleat about 1 mm deep.  It was the result of a little too much backing fabric in that area.  When I stitched in the ditch it got doubled over and pulled some other bias-wise wrinkles in as well although they didn't pleat.  I was lucky it happened along the straight line of a border strip.  I hadn't done any fancy quilting there yet.

My fix required un-stitching about 3-4 inches along two seams, tying off the threads and straightening the fabric.  Then I carefully pinned the fabric in place, attached the duel feed foot, changed the thread and replaced the ditch stitching.

Specifically, I held the sandwich together, easing out the backing fabric with my fingers.  Then I pinned the sandwich together from the back with 1/2 inch of pin showing on the front across the seam. They were about 3/4 inch apart.

Pins in the back smoothed the backing

Pins as seen on the front of the quilt

I managed sewing this by doing something you must NEVER do. I sewed across the pins.   I stitched in the ditch very, very SLOWLY, and when I came to a pin I moved the needle by turning the hand control across the pin making sure that needle and pin did not tangle with each other.

WARNING:  Never sew over pins.  You can throw your machine out of timing and cause a great deal of expensive damage as well.  I could have basted with needle and thread, but I didn't.  Instead I used extreme care and was using the dual feed foot.  I did not attempt this with FMQ.  That would have spelled disaster and would have looked a mess (at least for me).

Success!  The pleat is gone although there was a fair amount of puffiness in the area that looked more like easing than anything else.  The affected border was quilted with piano keys and the stitching took up a lot of fabric.  It looks perfect after all is done, and I don't anticipate any more problems, but I will be watching.

The piano keys ate up all excess fabric with no pleating

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you a life without wrinkles.