Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Working Backwards

Aye Yi Yi.

My triangle quilt was going along just fine, I had three out of four borders on, but then I started encountering problems. I couldn't get a border to fit right, it wasn't square and then I didn't like the width of the inner-most border.



So I took the borders off as one unit of the three strips already sewn together. I was going to trim down the inner-most strip and put them back on, but the center part, with all the triangles, was caddy-wumpus. Sheesh. A lot of the seems were not even or a full quarter-inch wide. I was probably so excited to get it into one piece I didn't notice my mistakes.

So I spent an evening resewing the seems that were not acceptable. There were a lot of them.

Now it's better, lays flatter, no bubbles or puckers.

My sewing machine has a display screen to show the stitch selection, the length and width, as well as other information. In the middle of all this sewing, unsewing, and resewing, the oil symbol starts flashing. Wow, it had been a while since I'd brushed out the lint and oiled it, I'd completely forgotten. The hole in the machine oil bottle is a smidge too big so the oil gushes everywhere. Oh well, none got on the quilt so all is fine. But when the maintenance was done, it sounded a lot better, it almost purrs now.

Sunday I visited Material Girls, a fabric shop in LaPlata, and bought more fabric. In addition to the other things to fix, I've got to decide whether I'll use the new stuff or keep with the choices I'd already made.

Last night I get the border sections back out and start measuring carefully so they are straight and even when I do the trimming. But the first one isn't straight. It is too wide in places and too narrow in others. Sheesh. Another step backward.

Now I've got the stitches unpicked for the three strips in the first section and ironed them out. sheesh. Maybe one day I'll actually make progress again.

In the mean time, the Girl Scout vests are piling up and I probably have 6 or 8 jobs to work on. I probably ought to switch back to that work and give myself a break from the quilt.

And let's not forget laundry. I'm down to the dregs of undies...

2 comments:

just me said...

Sounds frustrating. I bet those GS vests are looking pretty good right now... and besided, I'm sure the scouts and their moms would appreciate having those done before the school year begins.

Besides, you can always use the income to buy more fabric :)

Unknown said...

My mom is a big sewer and she laments the material nowadays is not up to snuff. I suppose the material store you go to has pretty nice fabric? She doesn't have a good stores to shop in where she lives.
THat quilt is so gorgeous1 I am in awe- but then I said that a few times, I think.

"Dregs" and "undies" make for bad imagery...