right now, "twirly", the 3rd of the 6.5 quilts (the pillow sham only counts for half a quilt) i'm attempting to finish by Christmas, is being quilted. oh, wait. I forgot about penny patch. make that 7.5 quilts by Christmas.
has it really been 4 weeks since we started this gig? goodness, that must mean Christmas is a whole month closer and closing in fast! (how many more days, Janine?) getting off to a good start was encouraging for me, but now it feels maybe i'm loosing traction over the long haul. my endurance hasn't been so good.
I've decided as I go along that I don't want to just rush through these projects to get them done by a deadline. I want to enjoy making them and do them right, too. this has slowed me down. "twirly" is getting some special quilting attention because I am shaking things up a bit with custom quilting in spots rather than just an all-over. also, I've run into a problem with some bunching or puckering when using the walking foot. I've never seen the fabric push and sort of stretch out like this. i'm at a complete loss as to why, also. it's too much to go into right now. but the fmq parts are doing just fine. so my quick fix is to do the fmq first and then go back to the straight line. or maybe try straight line with the fmq foot.
for clarity's sake, i think i'll highlight what's been done each week.
the list now:
d1 - "plus a diamond" needs handbinding
s1 - wonky stacked coins not started
d2 - "taite" needs handbinding
s2 - "bandwidth" not started
d3 - "twirly" got backing done, is in process of quilting
d4 - flowered pillow sham not started
d5 - "paris daydreams" flimsy
penny patch qal - started cutting
linking in with soma at whims and fancies for the making Christmas blog hop link party
I loooove those foo foos! I actually almost got each of my girls a pair but they didn't have one of their sizes. Boo! I agree, you should enjoy the process and not rush. Sometimes I need to remind myself the same thing. Hope you have a great, no rush, sewing weekend!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! Where did you get those leopard shoes? So adorable!
ReplyDeleteFor the quilt you are having trouble with, I usually do the straight outline quilting and then the FMQ. Hope that helps:)
I dislike my walking foot. I honestly have had better luck lately just leaving it off!
ReplyDeleteYou're doing wonderfully with your list but, as you say, this shouldn't feel like a marathon and enjoying your Christmas makes is more important than getting everything ticked off. Hope you have a happy and relaxing sewing week and your stitching resolves :)
ReplyDeleteBaby is walkin on the wild side! I had trouble with my walking foot with the 1st quilt I quilted on my Juki, I played with the tension, as well as the height adjustment, & it still wasn't right and I have not put it back on again - I've since been lazy about looking into it further. I use my walking foot with my other machine and just leave Mr. Juki set up for FMQ. And I actually prefer FMQ for outline quilting anyway, but when quilting lots of rows I would prefer to use it so I will need to spend some time to figure it out eventually. Let me know if you learn anything about adjusting it!
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