Hitting the Blocks

So, despite getting waylaid by paint cans last week, I’ve gotten my aunt’s quilt to the quilting stage. It’s all nicely sandwiched and pinned.

And here I am stuck.

I tried to hoop it to hand-quilt this lovely wineglass design (this despite my lack of ability to sew even stitches), but I couldn’t get the hoop to stay on.

So then I tried some free-motion quilting.

First there was the issue of getting the blasted squares under my “Big Foot” free-motion darning stomper thingy. I love my machine, but there is so little throat room that trying to quilt anything larger than a baby quilt is like trying to thread an embroidery needle with baling twine.

Then there was the issue of table space. I have this lovely Sauder Harbor View Craft Armoire and for most sewing projects it’s great. In fact, it’s done wonders for the organization in my sewing room. However, there is very little room for a quilt. In the past I’ve set up multiple card tables to try to get a big enough workspace big quilts.

This time I tried using my cutting table instead. It’s basically an old drop-leaf table set up on cubes. This set up requires me to sew standing upright and one-legged. (I once did this with my Serger to edge almost 100 feet of a wedding runner)

So, there I was, balancing on one foot, trying to keep an even sewing speed and guide this monster wad of quiltage about in a nicely random squiggle, when my daughter decided now would be a good time to start wailing. About what I never found out, but she came in demanding “Uppie!” I told her to wait, so I could finish my squiggle. Next thing I know is she’s got her little foot down on the presser foot with mine.

After reading her the riot act about never playing with Mama’s sewing machine–it’s a big ouchie–I then looked at my handiwork.

It was nice and flat (no dead bodies quilted into it), but there were loops sticking up here and there, and the underside looked strange. So I adjusted the tension and tried again. Looked a little better this time, but still too uneven.

Right about then I was ready to just hand-tie the silly thing, but after putting so much work into, I’d really like it to look right.

So I’ve put it away while I mull over my options

1. learn a bit more on how to control the fabric when doing free-motion quilting AND
2. find a larger sewing surface (probably my mother’s table in WV) OR
3. just use stitch-in-the-ditch technique, but it would still require a larger table and preferably two people to help twist the quilt about OR
4. have Mom hand-quilt it on our big quilting frame, as was our original plan

Now I know why the professional quilters have someone else do the quilting for them. Whew. What a pain. Designing is fun. Piecing is fun. Even the cutting out can be fun. As of right now, with the tools I have, quilting is not fun.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Sewing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.