This quilt arrived via courier on Thursday, just before our long weekend in South Africa and my sister visited me. It had to stay on the back burner until Sunday after my guests left. Initially, I had no idea what to quilt but as with most quilts, even if you have an idea, it might change relatively fast once you get going.
In the end,
I think the motifs chosen worked well.
With this last quilt, after the influx of quilting, I had during February and March, I noticed my bobbin winder not working. Having my machine for more than 7 years I suspected it not to last forever although I mostly used pre-wound bobbins. I also knew I did plenty of quilting daily, so I thought it was time to give the machine a good full-body treatment and check if I didn’t have any thread or lint caught up in the winder.
I got a rather unpleasant surprise when the machine was opened up and I noticed the cables to the winder were cut and definitely not when I owned it. I then too remembered the heaps of problems I had after the initial purchase and several so-called ‘components’ having to be replaced. Now those were luckily still under guarantee and, as far as I know, I purchased a new machine. Now with the cut wires, I am seriously suspecting a refurbished machine was sold to me, with Bernina, the local distributor, hoping I’d never find out. I am sure Grace USA is totally unaware of this and when I mentioned it to the local technician in Johannesburg, he just chuckled, not denying it, not arguing or trying to prove me wrong. I am really disappointed in Bernina South Africa.
Anyway, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and with external winders (on my Pfaff domestic machines) I am still able to wind bobbins, if needed and I finished the all squares in blue by doing just that.
I just received a quilt all the way from Nelspruit but with a long weekend coming up and me having my sister visiting, not much quilting will happen until next week.
This is an Annie du Toit, a local designer, pattern made by the daughter-in-law of a quilter who was once renowned for her quilting knowledge but sadly lost her life in a car accident in 2009. I was however glad to see the quilting tradition continuing in the family.
The maker
just wanted an edge-to-edge quilt, and it turned out to be one of the smaller quilts I did with the most unpicking ever. The quilt has 3-D blocks with points and triangles that are loose. More than once, I stitched over these. The quilter did not mind, but I am sure she would not have appreciated it when I
quilted the triangle in the wrong direction.
When I told
this to the maker, she replied “if you don’t learn to love unpicking, don’t
start quilting". How true is that?!
I just finished the little doll printed top and got 3 more similar ideas. The printed tops had to be layered with batting and backing and turned into quilts by adding the stitching. These went fast as they were not big and had no seams that I had to be careful with.
This is from the same quilter in the previous post, meant for her little granddaughter and was a solid piece of fabric with little dolls printed on it. Again, she did not want any detailed quilting so we opted for squares.
