Dec 17, 2006

free at last

I took the last stitches in the three commissioned quilts yesterday at about 2:30. I knew that I wanted to get a picture of the T-shirt quilt and had a batting roll to deliver to the church along with our hanging pole set up so off I went to our meeting place. OH OH. Something was going on in the fellowship hall but some cars were leaving as I pulled up so I thought that I had come 12 plus miles and wasn't going to turn back around. Of course, I was not dressed for company--sweat pants and an old baggie shirt, ponytail, no makeup--I hadn't really planned on leaving the house, after all.

They were all busy taking group pictures by that time and I snuck into the closet with our supplies so I don't know that anyone spotted me coming in. The first person I talked to said they were celebrating someone's 100th birthday and pointed me to the one in charge. Could I lay out my quilt since I had already driven that far and get a picture quick?? Sure, she says. Unfortunately, my batteries had just run out-----argh. I gotta start either carrying a new set of batteries in my purse or get a 2nd set that I can recharge. One of the fellows there took pity and took a couple shots of it for me (bless you, Mike!!) and emailed them to me this morning. Some of the ladies came over to see what I had laid out on the floor. See below.

Judy asked what the problem had been that I had to re-do sections of the t-shirt quilt binding sewn on by the longarmer. First, I don't know if this is standard practice for a long armer but it was trimmed off right to the edge. When I machine quilt I leave at least an inch of the batting, backing all around before I put on the binding. Then I don't have to worry about the two layers shifting as I stitch around the outside. She is in the habit of putting the binding on the back and pulling it to the front and machine stitching it down so I had to tell her how to do the mitered corners and have her apply it the OPPOSITE of what she normally would feel comfortable doing. SO what happened, there were several places were the top pulled away from the edges and the binding did not catch---raw fabric exposed. The biggest problem was the big pleats one side. I was taught to do this with the walking foot on--makes sense to me as it "quilts" the edge. She did not but as I said, she may have had a machine with the differential feed built in. I had to cut the binding apart and add in a section to make up about an inch to inch and 1/2 of the quilt---just wasn't good BUT it is fixed now. All three of the quilts will be delivered Tuesday at 10.










Today I took the day off from any stitching, hand or machine, and concentrated on doing my Home Extension and Bama Belles treasury job. Push a little paper around and deal with the piled up mail. Stayed up way too late last night reading a new to me author Jennifer Crusie Bet Me Our public library has a couple other titles by her so I'll track another book down when I go in for quilt delivery date. Just going to kick back and spend a quiet evening--maybe give DJ that haircut I told to NOT even think about with all that binding hanging over my head last week. Errands tomorrow and maybe get busy on finishing up my Santa redwork piece---or not, LOL.

11 comments:

  1. the quilts turned out really well. I actually like that they are not identical...

    ReplyDelete
  2. so happy they turned out as well as they did Linda..what a great job done!

    ReplyDelete
  3. They all look great!

    I especially like the way the black shadows on the SEC quilts set off the logos, so much more effective than just a simple black border all the way around would have been. Good going!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, love the shadow effect, they look very professional!

    ReplyDelete
  5. hip hip hooray!!! hip hip hooray!!!

    All three pieces turned out just great! Vaughn should be so pleased!

    Now give your back and shoulders a break and rest up ~~ a new year of quilting is just around the corner!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ok..so now I've written you an email instead and when I minimize Yahoo, there was the comment section they wouldn't give me before..LOL
    Ah life is great! Hugs, Finn

    ReplyDelete
  7. Excellent job on the quilts Linda! They should be very pleased with them. Thanks for explaining what went wrong on the bindings. I just couldn't picture out you could mess up that job, but what do I know. I am, one who cuts mine all to the edge before I bind too, but I use the big walking foot and I am super careful to keep the bindging right next to the edge and make sure that nothing shifts. If it starts to then I un-sew and fix it right away. I agree that the walking foot is the only nice way to sew them on without having the layers shift too much.

    Realx now and take a break from all that binding work and hand sewing!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very nice work! I ESPECIALLY like the Vanderbilt blocks in the corners of the SEC quilts...:::very big grin:::;

    ReplyDelete
  9. These quilts are very beautiful, you are really good, Linda:)))
    Compliments for the notable job that employs in to do this.

    ReplyDelete
  10. binding challenges or not, those are GREAT quilts!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I really like the shadow effect on the T-shirt quilts. Nice job on all three quilts.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by. If you comment will require a reply back, please include your email addy. Unless I am involved in a blog hop, my posts will be moderated and your comment will not appear until I am notified. THX for understanding--this option beats word verification!