Wednesday, June 19, 2013

wip - ing along during staycation

my kids are taking a summer musical theatre class every weekday for the next two weeks. for this homeschooling mama, it's rather like what other moms experience on a regular basis. there's the chaos and rush to get out the door, then it's just me and baby. we do this every year and i always look forward to it as my own mini vacation at home - a staycation.
 i have this glorious daydream of being able to complete the 4 quilts i have in the quilting que. monday was all about getting arrangements made, so i mostly just got unpicking done on pom pom de paris.  tuesday was different. i started quilting romance in the garden.  it would have been a fun quilt to play with different patterns or to do some creative straight line quilting, but i need practice with the stipple before i tackle taite.  so stipple it was. the deciding factor was that the long strips of prints (sashing, really) look a bit wonky to me. and not the good kind of wonky. you know how fabrics aren't always printed perfectly straight? well, when you cut a long, narrow strip of a print that's very linear, it looks crooked on the quilt! i'm hoping the stippling will lessen the effect. straight line would only have emphasized it, i think.

 one small gaff so far: a bit of the backing turned under and got sewed in the quilting. it's only a wee amount, right at the edge so i hope it'll be an easy fix. i didn't want to stop and mess with it yet. saving it for later.

i began having tremendous trouble with thread breakage. after about the 6th time, i decided to change my needle even though it was pretty new because the tension looked perfect. that didn't help. i scoured the machine's manual, which is very basic. it's a good thing i'm a reasonably intelligent person, even after giving up brain cells to each child. (i do believe after 7 children that babies are made from brain cells, not the egg and whatnot.) i was able to piece some ideas together and decided to try loosening the bobbin tension and adjusting the top tension to match. scary! but it worked.

 i do love seeing my pin jar refill itself as quilting moves along. big smile! it's nothing fancy (or "flash", liz), just a plastic jellybean jar leftover from a gift. but it works brilliantly for the intended purpose. i figure someday the label will look all cool and vintage, too. oh, who'm i kidding. it's just plastic. but it works and even has a nice hexy shape. i like it.

quilt folded in half to prove to myself it's half done!
i was able to complete half the quilting yesterday! moving right along but not showing the quilting too closely. i'm definitely getting better, my curves are rounder and there is less sharpness, but i did get myself into some tight spots so there are a few skinny fingers in there. i broke my self-imposed "no fmq  after 9pm" rule so i could make it to the halfway mark and it shows. still, i can not believe i'm so close to the binding phase with this. what an exhilarating feeling.

almost done unpicking this mess. what a project! but i think it will be worth it. if it isn't, i'll just lie to myself that it was. pressing forward.

linking in with lee at freshly pieced

11 comments:

  1. Your quilt is beautiful and your quilting looks awesome! I agree with you - babies are made from our braincells. Truly, I think you're exactly correct on that one.

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  2. Your "romance in the garden" quilt is lovely. Good luck with the other project...I'm sure it will be fine. All of your projects look so nice!

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  3. Look at you, you fancy pants quilter you! Love that quilt :-)

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  4. Fellow homeschooling/brain coma-fied by kids....wishing I could send my kids to camp too...saying, bless you for all you do and (I'm sure) all the sewing and quilting time and energy you have sacrificed over the years! I love your fabric choices and God speed on finishing and accomplishing your goals!

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  5. Your quilt will be lovely - not long until you'll be binding it - yay!
    Had a look around your blog - we also homeschool, have six girls and two boys. Your bathroom looks HUGE! I sew on the dining table.....close quarters around here.

    :) Karen

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  6. Your stippling looks awesome! Some lovely even stitches coming from you and your Juki. Good for you for solving your thread breakage problem. I was using some non-Aurifil thread for FMQ before, and had horrible breakage-pilling-linting issues--but then this week, quilted with my first Aurifil, and none of the craziness. Am I a better quilter? Or did my materials improve? Hmm.

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  7. gorgeous quilt!! and ugh! I have had the backing fold under and get quilted before. Unfortunately, I didn't catch it nearly as early as you did. :)

    good luck on your WIP's. You go girl!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  8. A staycation is definitely one of my favourites too! The colours in your quilt are lovely. I have had that happen to me too - when the backing flips over - very annoying. Hope it is an easy fix for you!

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  9. Ha! Moms with lots of kids have different ideas about mini vacations:). Beautiful WIPs!!! I think MeadowSweet may be my favorite line of all time! Your quilting looks awesome too!

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  10. Beautiful! I love the colors, so warm! What are you going to bind it with??

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