So, with all that, here it is:
Thursday, January 31, 2013
right down to the wire!
I finished my Madrona Rd. Challenge quilt last night at 11:45 ish. Tonight I took a couple sort of low-light photos, but it's done. I can enter in the contest and into the lovely year of finishes for January. Whew. I struggled so with this quilt. I wanted simple stitch in the ditch horizontal quilting. My first try ended up with a nice long line of ripples in the direction of the ditch-stitching. Sigh. I plucked out a bunch of stitching. (like for a good part of Saturday) Sunday I was too depressed to do anything with the quilt. I started again early in the week, with pretty much the same results. At a certain point, I decided, too bad, I'm just going to finish this and move on. I'd love any suggestions on ways to avoid getting all those puckers. I think the linen might be the culprit, it seems a bit more stretchy than regular quilting cotton. Anyway, it's done. Finished the binding last night. It's not horrible, but to be honest, it looked a lot better before I quilted it. And I don't even feel like I've learned anything. I'll be dragging this to my next quilt guild meeting to seek guidance.
So, with all that, here it is:
So, with all that, here it is:
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I'm so sorry you had to unsew and that you're not happy with the quilt. It's always so disappointing when the reality of the project doesn't meet vision we had when we started. (It happens way too often to me!)
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've heard a blogger mention quilting with linen fabric. I have a small collection of linen which I've been collecting for some future quilt. Your post makes me wonder if I should or shouldn't use it. I have read in magazines of others using linen for quilts. (They recommended wider seams, but that's all I remember them saying.) It seems like you quilted on your sewing machine - something I haven't tried yet (and may or may not try).
From the photo, I think your quilt looks good but I also know that photographs don't show everything the eye sees in real life. I hope your guild can give you some help in solving the problems you see.
The linen is so soft and has such a beautiful texture. I see from your blog that you hand stitch your quilting and I think that would have been perfect for this little quilt. I know people go back and forth about washing vs. not, but I washed all the linen, being afraid that it would shrink more than the cotton. (I have no idea if that is the case, though). Thanks for the comments!
DeleteCarolyn, I know that the nature of the linen fibers are very different than the cotton. Linen is the longest of fibers and makes a very strong fabric where cotton is short and weaker. I also know the reason our modern linen is so burlap sack like is due to the lost technique of wet weaving the linen yarns. That technique In the 17th and 18th Centuries allowed weavers to make such fine thin linen fabrics you could see through it like a veil. They crisp up very nicely with starch hence the white ruffs of Elizabethan and the Dutch masters collars. I doubt it would shrink much more than cotton. It is wise to give new fabrics a wash but I always size the fabrics with more starch after washing out the original sizing.
ReplyDeleteI remember at the last meeting that the hand of your quilt was very soft. I think it would have machine quilted better if you had it starched and stiffer before running it in your machine but I don't have any personal experience with those fabrics so that is just a guess. Glad you got it in under that deadline and sorry to hear you had so much trouble. It is a lovely design and the colors really are so perfectly selected... Don't give up keep seeking help because linen is a wonderful fiber.
Frederick, thanks for the information and advice. I always forget starching as a tool, but I'll bet you're right, and that it would have kept everything running through the machine more smoothly. I made up a sweet little sample that was just straight patchwork squares of alternating linen and cotton and I quilted them in both directions and they came out beautifully. so I think partly it's the long one-direction lines and two the flexibility of the fiber.
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