Friday 14 January 2005

quilt stuff

I am almost finished the dragon/fish quilt. I really don't know what I'll do if I actually get it done after three years. Of course The thing I have to do is bind it, and I have been known to actually use quilts for months before binding. You know how some people farm tops out to be quilted? I'd like to farm whole quilts out to be bound. Tedious and annoying. I always get frustrated with binding.

I was reading a disscussion about machine quilting from the 'front' of the machine, which at first made no sense to me, as I thought 'well you have to quilt from the front anyway.' Then this 'front' quilting was likened to longarm quilting and someone mentioned that it would take getting used to to quilt sideways, and I realized what they were refering to as the front of the machine, I would consider the side.

So anyway, I tried it with this quilt's border (this has just become an experimental quilt). The fact that I had a hard time seeing what I was doing would be the main complaint, rather than getting used to going in a sideways motion. I actually tucked and sewed over the backing-an amateur mistake I haven't made in years-though there were advantages to doing it this way. It was easier to control the bulk of the quilting being chief among them. I'll have to try it a few more times to decide whether it is truly helpful or not.

Also, I found this site and I think it might work much better with the machine recessed like that. I do need a new table, that old one spent many years outside, and seems to like to grab pins while a piece is going by. One of my great nemeses, that table.

Speaking of Nemeses, I found another site, which I found quite useful in helping me get one up on another object of eternal frustration-the bobbin case. I had to try it straight away. It worked. This made me way more happy than it should have.
Like my uncle said, I'll never need a man as long as I have the arts. And bannock.

1 comment:

arlee said...

more pictures please! :D