Yes, I was lazy last week. I didn't write a post. Summertime is unpredictable even though my children left the nest long ago. There is yard work to do. I have trays my mother painted with Early American Design that have become damaged with use. I need to repair them in the summer when the weather is warm because I must varnish in the uninsulated garage instead of in my tiny home. Fruit is ripe and jam must be made when the time is right. It waits on no sewing project. I generally sew every day for 2-3 hours, but have not been able to do that for the last couple of weeks, let alone blog. I had a visitor from Scotland so we hiked and he chiseled a crack in two of my genealogical brick walls. Had to work on those of course.
Lastly, the sewing of my Phoenix bird hit a snag. Do you ever make a quilt that goes perfectly from start to finish? Grrrr! I don't.
TIP: Start your quilting in the middle even if the sandwich is well secured.
The bird itself turned out great. I started on its belly in the center and worked the wings out from there. When I got down to the tail feathers, I got so excited to work on them that I just simply didn't think it through and began with the outside feathers and worked in. Thread painting is so dense that it redistrubutes fabric as it fills. Here is what I got:
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| Extra fabric arising like the Himalayas |
All kinds of mountainous rumples arose within the confines of the feathers. What to do? The fire helped a little, but the photo shows it unfinished because I thought I had better bulldoze the hills first in case I had to rip out the flames. I tried McTavishing, but it wasn't enough so I took it out and settled for small pebbles with a curlique in the center hoping that lots of stitches would eat up the extra fabric. They did as you can see below:
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| Heavy quilting black on black - click to enlarge. |
Mostly that did the trick, but the area does not lay perfectly flat. I think and pray that I can flatten it during the blocking process. If not, it will still be a nice quilt, but not show fodder. If not, I will consider it part of a heavy duty lesson in thread painting.
TIP: All is not lost, ever. It is all in how you look at it and whether or not you learn from your mistakes. After all, it is just a quilt. Your life cannot be ruined by a quilting error. Your psyche may get temporarily dampened, so take a break, take a hike, make some jam, clean up the sewing room.......
As I write, I know I have more extra fabric to contain, but it is getting better as I work it out. The fires are complete so I continue with black on black pebbles that take a magnifying glass to see what I am doing.
Sew a happy seam this week.
