Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Despair, gloom and misery


I've been working on my brother's quilt, and a few days ago put the top, batting and back together to start quilting. I knew I had a problem, starting with a certain stretchy stripe, that's been a problem since I sewed it into the top. I was hoping it could be resolved in the quilting stage, but even pinning was a problem. Despite all these warning signs I started quilting and the center went well, I think.

But you can see the stretchy stripe lurking on the left.

Now I've had to start easing stuff in, not with great results. Things are looking all puffy and wrinkled.
This is only my third quilt, so I'm not sure what to do. What I want to do is to keep on quilting and hope that I can just continue to "ease" out the crazy. But it's not looking good. I think there might be bigger problems ahead. I've only sewn to the edge of the white.


I know someone has some words of wisdom about this situation. This is a quilt for my brother and honestly I could sew some dish rags together and he'd be happy that I made him something, but it would bother me. Do I need to unquilt the whole thing and try to deal with mr. stretchy stripe in some way, say either replacing him or trying to take in some of his stretch? I'll be honest, that's not what I want to do, but if this is just going to get worse instead of resolving, I can spend a night or two ripping, I guess. (sob!)
On a brighter note, my sister is getting her first quilt top sewn together and it's so cool, and she's very excited. Even the cats are excited.

She's afraid that my kind of problem will affect her quilt, but I keep reassuring her that it won't.
It won't, right?


1 comment:

  1. I'm thinking you should try un-quilting and starting over with spray basting or fusible interfacing under the stretchy piece (try Pellon lightweight). With the fusible interfacing option you will then have to pin the you know what out of it to keep all your pieces where you want them. You can also try a different batting. I've noticed certain battings 'stick' better to quilting cottons than others. I've had lots of luck with quilters dream 100% cotton.

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