Probing Problems

My daughter asked me, "Mom, do you ever make a quilt that doesn't have problems?"  When I answered, "No," she just had a good laugh.  I guess it comes from designing my own quilts and encountering the unexpected along the way.  I am always trying new things and some don't work out as well as others.  So, how do you go about solving problems?

1.  First you have to get past denial and admit that you have a problem.  I finished the binding completely before I discarded the denial, but it still looked horrible.  Discouraging.

2.  Identify the problem.  That was easy.  The binding looked like it had heavy, lumpy cording inside.  In all the quilts I have done I have never had anything like this happen.

3.  Decide what to do.  Do I leave it and forget showing it?  Do I throw it away and forget it?  Do I take off the binding and do it over again?  I have put a lot of time and work into this quilt so I chose to redo the binding.  As I ripped I moved on to #4.

4. Analyze the problem.  Have you ever thought about what happens when you take layers of fabric and batting and then stitch through them?  Bear with me.  Every line you stitch compresses the fabric and batting, and ultimately shrinks the quilt as shown below (exaggerated).  The line representing the quilted fabric began the same length as that representing the unquilted fabric.

When you have a lot of quilting it causes the outer edges of the quilt's fabric and batting to ruffle.  The more quilting there is, the greater the amount of ruffling.

That edge ruffle includes fabric and batting.

I have a narrow border on which I quilted feathers.  I stitched the binding on before I did the feathers so I would be sure not to catch the feathers under the binding.  I had never done that before and was quite pleased at the the time because it had no puckers and seemed perfect.  Then I stitched the feathers.  Now I realize that I sewed the binding onto all that ruffley stuff and probably had inadvertently incorporated too much binding length.  I also have two layers of batting (wool and low loft cotton) plus the fabric for top and bottom.  All in all that was a lot to squash into the binding, resulting in a heavy, lumpy binding.

Ruffled edge of my quilt.

5.  Devise a solution and do it!.  First of all I removed the binding.  I needed to flatten the outer edges of the quilt to remove the ruffling so I quilted lines very close together around the edge of the quilt.  The thread is the same color as the fabric.  These little lines are not perfect, but most of the stitching will be inside the binding.  It was tedious, but the edges squashed down flat.

With all that manipulating I decided to re-soak and re-block the quilt to be sure it is perfectly square.  I washed the binding fabric and was able to re-use it.  I have applied it now and am in the process of hand-stitching it to the back of the quilt.  That was a lot of work, but I channelled my inner bulldog and will be done in a couple of days.  It is looking excellent so I have been vindicated.  It may be the best binding I have ever done!

I must say that I have never encountered a problem like this, nor have I heard or read about it.  I hope my experience will help some other quilters.

TIP:  If your edges are ruffled, quilt them flat before binding.

"If  you fear the unknown and don't pursue adventure, you're missing out on such amazing opportunities and experiences." [Discover Magazine, "Athlete, Interrupted", May 2017, p 22].  This can be applied roughly to quilting.

TIP:  Get out there and have a new quilting adventure.  How many times have I said that?  Oh well, so true!  Sometimes you get a fabulous result.  Other times you have a learning experience.  Both are valuable.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you productive adventures this week.

Lemonade

When life serves you lemons, make lemonade.  What a concept for life and for quilting.  If you hadn't guessed it yet, I am a flea on a hot stove, except when I am hiking (when I am really slow!).  My excitement and anticipation sometimes get me into trouble when I enter my sewing room and plow forward with determination.  That is why my faithful readers get to vicariously walk through a lot of obstacles on my blog.  I try so hard to achieve perfection, but remain quite good at making mistakes.  However, I usually am able to figure out a way to solve the problems I create, so I share.

I put together the white and the black background of the quilt.  Then I pieced the side panels and machine appliquéd them onto that background.  There was some excess black on the left side, which I intended to cut back once the sides were sewn down on top of it.  I forgot!  I didn't even think of it again....until I quilted one of the orange triangles.  It was very clear that there was black fabric behind half of it with a very visible straight edge.  It SCREAMED at me under the light fabric.  I was not going to redo the quilt or remove all the quilting that was keeping me from getting at it.

Black fabric behind upper orange triangle

So I set the "lemon" aside and did some other things that needed doing.  Then I made some Christmas presents.  Then there was lots of cooking for Thanksgiving at the last minute because icy roads prevented us from joining family for the celebration.  By this time several days had gone by, and I had finally decided what to do.

The background quilting of the offending triangle was very tightly sewn so I made a mock-up with scraps showing the black behind the orange, and then did the same kind of quilting with the same color thread.  Why?  I needed a tester.  I tried some paint, but that looked awful.  Than I wanted to see if I could take out the heavy quilting without ruining the fabric.  YES!  It worked, so I carefully ripped out the quilting of the one unsightly triangle.  It took a couple of hours and a good audio book.  Then I sprayed water on the fabric to relax the fibers and rubbed a soft toothbrush around to gently induce the needle holes to disappear.  The fabric looked a bit used, but not damaged.  Once the fabric and batting were dry I opened the triangle and carefully snipped out as much of the nasty black fabric as I could reach without cutting the quilt top.  I couldn't get it all, but as you can see below, there is no longer an eye-catching straight line of black.  A little bit is still there, but could be mistaken for a shadow or a natural dark spot in the batik fabric.  At least I hope it looks like that!  All has now been repaired, the area re-quilted, my enthusiasm restored and I am excited to move on.

After snipping out the black and redoing the area - not perfect, but OK (I hope)

TIP:  It is discouraging to make a distracting error, so leave it for awhile as you ponder solutions and decide on options.  This took me a few days.  I don't recommend tossing it in the closet until next year.  If I did that I wouldn't remember my plans for finishing and that might lead to more ripping.

I successfully finished the background quilting and some of the pieced side borders - still more to do on the sides.  The black at the bottom will be quilted after the bird is in place.  (Don't worry, it is not crooked, but is hanging wonky with a rumple in the middle - nothing permanent.)

Background quilted and ready to receive the bird.

Below is the back.  I wish I had put colored thread in the bobbin for the straight lines on the pieced side parts.  Oh well, I think I will do that as I quilt the rest of those pieced parts.

Reminds me of the Mediterranean designs.