Mauritian elephant quilt - Completed

Whoop – whoop I got it done! BUT dear old me fell asleep before the end of the Wimbledon final.  Luckily my overactive bladder woke me up just in time to see the trophy ceremony, so at least I know who won.

The quilt withstood its first wash but I still had some colours bleeding onto the backing even after adding Retayne to the water.

Mauritian elephant quilt 2

For my birthday friend, Karin gave me two huge pieces of batting and when I measured the first one, it measured perfect for the top.  I also had extra-wide backing in my stash thus having everything ready to go.

I exchanged my ruler foot for a Glide foot that is meant for quilting around applique or any other dimensional elements in a quilt although I do think with this flimsy applique I’ll have to quilt over the applique and not just around them.  I also opted for YLI Wonder invisible thread, colour Smoke.

Before I took the parrot for her afternoon nap (under a blanket, on our bed) on Saturday I had the quilt loaded and ready for quilting.  Hoped to get started before the Wimbledon women’s finals started.

Knowing this won’t ever become an heirloom, I opted for dense meandering to try and catch all the applique pieces in order for them not to deteriorate after one wash.  The invisible thread truly lived up to its name as I crossed lines several times (a big NO when doing meandering) but I simply couldn’t see my previous stitching line.  Had a thread break once and getting to find the exact spot where the thread broke was almost an impossible task.

I got a row done before the ladies’ final started, took a break to watch Halep’s amazing victory and then quilted a little more before bedtime.

Early up this morning, I continued and if I ever complained about a skew quilt, this one must be the worst. When advancing a quilt to the next section the ideal is to see either a sashing or stitching forming a straight line over the frame but look at this orange applique to the right…. All over the place and definitely not a straight line.  Fortunately meandering is forgiving and one can get away with murder doing this.

While quilting I also noticed that some of the hand-dyes already bled over the background, I guess from the sweat on the piecer’s hands and I encountered several spots with dried food bits on which made me somewhat sad as I’ve often read about child labour being used without giving these kids a meal break and they have to eat while working.  Couldn’t help wondering if this was the case here too.

There was no way I would be able to square this quilt so I simply kept my ruler a quarter inch away from the outer orange applique and cut it.  Finding something to use as binding will be my next headache.

This is the back where the crossing of the lines can clearly be seen.  Now if I get going with the binding I might just start hand sewing the back while watching the Wimbledon men’s final.

Mauritian elephant quilt 1

Way back in April 2006 I went on vacation with my kids to Mauritius and at the market bought this, which was sold as a quilt BUT it had no batting or backing.  I decided to buy it as a souvenir anyway. It measures 76” x 92” but after close inspection, at home, I realised that I would never be able to wash this, as it will fall apart with the first wash.

It was hand-sewn and appliqued with huge stitches for piecing and the applique.

Loose threads covered most of the top and I was simply too scared to pull on or clip these.

It also had a sort of binding that was all but perfect or at least neat but this was machine stitched.

As with most souvenirs it therefor ended up stashed in a cupboard in the garage and I actually forgot about it until one cleaning day.  I just knew something had to be done with this.

Step one for me was to unpick the binding.  At this stage not even sure the applique will go under my machine foot but I definitely knew the binding made it way too thick. As huge as the stitches for piecing and applique were, the machine stitches were intensely small and unpicking these was not an easy task.

While taking off the binding, I took a photo of the applique stitches on the back.  Huge!

Then I ironed the sides and the top and noticed that not only did the sides not match where the blocks were joined

But in several places, the applique was not caught in the stitching.

I think I might have bitten off more than I could chew.

Celebrate Panel – Completed

With all my customer quilts done, I could zip this one back on the frame and finish it. It has plenty of white which is most probably not suitable for any of my family’s homes as we all have pets but I might just keep it for the guest room.

Even though I hated working with the percale as a backing (the needle left huge holes in the fabric) it turned out rather well after washing and the holes closed.

We were invited to supper at a local restaurant by friend Karin and her hubby and as usual, nothing to complain about, good food, good company which ended with Karin giving me my birthday gifts early.

I loaded my tension tester on the frame and experimented with marking a motif with the blue pen onto fabric and then stitching on the lines.  This worked much better than trying to follow a line with the laser.  Now I just need to find out how one can see these designs on your light table, when using dark or black fabric.

The tension, however, was perfect as I had white thread on the top and navy in the bobbin.

A laid back Sunday

With no quilt on the frame, not in the mood for piecing, a quilt waiting to have the binding finished by hand (which I started this afternoon sitting by hubby at the TV as he played golf this morning), I decided to take some ‘me-time’ and stay in my PJ’s (cold enough) and do whatever I want if I feel like it.

First up was doodling some of the beautiful quilting designs seen all over the WWW, building memory muscle should I ever want to try it on a quilt.

Then I made a new tension test sample for the frame.  I’ve been through plenty of these as I like to know that I have good tension before starting a quilt.  In the process of having made so many, I’ve learnt a lot.  My first ones were way too wide and one doesn’t really need all that width as you can see tension problems rather quickly.  So this one is about 12” wide but much longer; now I have space to go for quite a while before having to make a new tester.

Next up was the ties on cushions meant for my dining room chairs, I purchased months ago.  The ties on the cushions were made for a different kind of chair and didn’t fit around the back of our chairs.  So I clipped one end of the double-folded tie, stitched that to the other ends to get them longer and now the cushions are neatly tied and won’t fall all over the place.

While in that room I decided to do a little cupboard and drawer clutter inspection and wipe all with a wet cloth.  I did good and got rid of more than one shopping bag of clutter.  I was glad hubby was not here as he ‘saves’ more clutter than I can get rid of.  Now that room is good for a couple of months again.

Apparently ‘laid back’ means cleaning to me as next up was the dining room sideboard.  With everything in it washed and the racks and drawers wiped, I decided to pour myself a glass of wine just to get chilled.  I find it extremely hard simply to sit and not do a thing, even watching a movie, takes its toll….. I just don’t do this sitting thing.  Working on a binding while watching a movie, now that is a different story.

I won’t do much quilting this coming week with it being the last week of Wimbledon.  I am glued to the TV and yes, this I can SIT and watch without becoming bored.

Anyway felt a sore throat most of the day and fought off a cold two days ago, so I made myself a throat concoction off the internet, going to take a long, hot relaxing bath and hoping to have none of these irritations in the morning.