Friday, June 29, 2018

Things That Can Go Wrong Do



Quilted

No, I did not cut a hole in my quilt or spill coffee on it.
Almost anything other than those things can be fixed. Almost.
I'll show you another screw-up I worked through.
(I should be famous for this kind of post by now.)




Saturday was a marathon for quilting, and all the ruler work was completed. I saved the more artistic parts for a time when I was fresh, and had more focus. On Sunday I had 6 ferny-feather fronds and 2 corners left. 





I got to the end of the quilt as you can see above, and finished my final setting triangles. At that point, the quilt needed to come off, and be flipped to a side to side orientation instead of top to bottom. Why? There is only so much room between the bars to quilt. The depth of the machine throat plus an acrylic ruler table made it slightly too small to fit the side setting triangles all within it. I didn't want to roll the frame back and forth with long, straight, diagonal lines, and find it's simpler to flip.

So, it was turned, quilted, checked, and finished! I went over the whole quilt on my cutting/ironing table a.k.a. ping pong table, and spritzed any remaining blue marker off the quilt top. I showed it to the family. I was happy with how it had turned out, and relieved to have the quilting done!



 Fast Forward to Monday Morning


I started well before dawn to make a decision about the binding. I prefer a bit of contrast with my binding to frame the quilt, and hunted for a slightly darker sky blue. There was a bit of Grunge that would have been sooooo nice, but I needed much more than I had. The store that had a good selection was over an hour away, and was that ethical when I was marketing this as a 'scrap and stash' quilt? I dug in my heels, and told myself it had to come from my stash. 



What if the contrast was only slight from a distance?
There is a bit pinned to the middle left side.



Instead I settled on a fabric that was used in the sashing strips already, and was satisfied. 


Midway through machine sewing the strip on, I saw the sight above. I missed quilting a nine patch. On closer inspection, I missed 3! Grrrrrrr.......



Back on the Longarm--Third Time

I pinned the edge I needed to work on, and used little C clamps to hold the quilt tight. The binding was partially sewn to this same edge, but I had it pinned out of the way of the longarm, and laying where I could see it. Really, I did!



Some quick ruler work to fix the 9 patches, and back to the sewing machine for the binding. What was that?



No-o-o-o! 
The binding was quilted ON the backing here.




I wasn't particularly happy, but I knew picking out the quilting wasn't happening. I was pretty sure I could fix this, and it was a good lesson. 

I first cut the binding strip off close to the offensive area. I had about 8" of loose binding left. I used applique scissors next, and cut all the fabric away from the quilting very carefully. I was down to about 1/8" of fabric under the stitches, and I switched tools.


Fearful I would accidentally pull a quilting thread instead of the fabric with my tweezers, I used a light misting of water. The water helped separate the fabric bits, and little by little my surgery worked.


 This was a win, and I'm taking the point!
Final binding pictures to come.

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.

Linking up with~


24 comments:

Lisa J. said...

Hi Julie: Although I am sorry for you that you had this problem, I'm glad that you wrote this post. I haven't sewn binding on the back of a quilt but I have sewn fabric on the back , on my domestic. You gave good instructions on how to fix the problem. Thanks for sharing. And it's a beautiful quilt as well.

Stitchin At Home said...

Love the quilt and those feathers! A neat way to fix the snafu, I probably would have ripped the stitches out.

Linda Swanekamp said...

I can just imagine the stomach dropping moment when you realized that the binding strip was caught. Before I got my long arm, I remember pushing my quilt through the machine and when I turned it over, it had pulled scraps from under my table and they were sewn to the back all over. I ended up ripping the threads, never thought to do what you did. The quilt is just lovely and refreshing.

Chantal said...

Oh my! It must the special of the week because I too quilted a piece of fabric on the back of my mug rug. The edge of the backing had folded on itself and I didn't noticed it. Such a waste of sewing time in my mind. Love this quilt and love the beautiful quilting. Don't give up, you're almost there. ;^)

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

don't you just hate it when you sew a pleat or like this binding to the back of the quilt - I do not long arm like you but I have done things like that with the sewing machine too it just takes so long to carefully take it all apart again. And as for missing the nine patches I have a small quilt on the table that I have used for a table topper for probably 4 or 5 years off and on throughout the year - one day I don't know why - one area caught my eye and I noticed one block area that I had completely not quilted as all the others - I did quilt it right then and there but I oculdn't believe it took that long to notice it.

SandraC said...

Wow, what a time you had with this one! You'll have to think of a special name to commemorate it properly, lol. On a side note, have you ever tried attaching the binding to the quilt while it is still on the longarm? It took me two years to get up the nerve to try it and now it's the main way for me to attach the binding, then just do the hand-stitching afterwards. The only time I do it on my domestic now is for special "show" quilts.

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

I have had to "unpick" fabric from quilting before and it can be sooo stressful. I am glad you were able to get it done without harming the quilting lines. Thank you for sharing and helping us all feel human.

Tu-Na Quilts said...

Oh, this was so good to read. I learned that you are human after all; I thought you never made mistakes. And I learned to spray a mist of water to help remove the fabric bits. This, too, has happened to me using my domestic machine. I handled it in a similar way except for the spritzing with water. This quilt is beautiful!!

Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts said...

Oh Julie, I'm sorry you had to go through this. I admit to giggling a little when I saw the binding quilted to the back because I've had days like that. Glad it all worked out!

chrisknits said...

You have a lot more patience than I!! It is going to be stunning.

O'Quilts said...

I have done that...oh, my how awful it is....but you fixed it with your infinite patience...a lovely quilt...

laughing gas quilts said...

How often have I missed a section of a quilt... And then comes the debate about whether it really needs to be quilted (of course, it always does), but to then have to deal with a binding issue... Congrats on the finish, and thanks for the water tip.

Barb Neiwert said...

Did you say you did this on a Monday? Therein lies the problem....
Sorry you had to unpick all that binding fabric. I would have screamed (Note: I'm only known to scream when it comes to quilting snafus. And I can scream loudly!!!)

Angie in SoCal said...

Great save and gorgeous quilt and quilting. Thanks for sharing your solution. I've sewn backing onto back when quilting - will have to remember this solution.

PaulaB quilts said...

Looks like you and I are in the majority, because I’ve done the same thing. Only anotheir quilter can understand why we scream. Your Quilting does really enhance the design nicely with each area designed to fit the piecing.

The Joyful Quilter said...

Oh, good grief!! (Just know that you aren't alone in that multi-leveled fiasco.) The striped binding looks like a perfect choice... here's hoping that you have enough left after the surgery!

greeneggs said...

I absolutely love the quilt and the washing is perfect. The effect is so vibrant, but contained. I love it. Gah! Having to undo when you are so close to the end! Well done for just gritting your teeth and solving the problem.

greeneggs said...

Oops autocorrect changed ‘sashing’ To ‘washing’.

Ramona said...

I have sewn extra fabric into the quilting on the back of a quilt several times. Fixing it like you did is a great idea. One time I was able to sew the label over the goof. :) Your quilt is just gorgeous!

KaHolly said...

Whew! How utterly stressful. I can picture you taking a deep breath, summoning forth all your patience, and taking your time to fix your dilemma. I might have had to walk away from it for a little while. The end result is a bee-utiful scrappy quilt that on first glance appears instead to have been very well planned out. Correction, knowing you, scrappy or not, it was carefully planned! Well done, Julie girl! Well ex3cuted. Does it have a final destination? My address is.........~wink~. XO

audrey said...

I hate days like that! So good to see how you worked through the problems, especially in picking out the fabric and not ruining the stitches. Brilliant fixit! Audrey

Anja @ Anja Quilts said...

Oh my...what an adventure. Glad you were able to fix everything.

Kate said...

Oh how frustrating! But you did a great job of fixing it all up (hopefully with minimal chewing of one's self).

Sandy Panagos said...

That is a huge win! Very frustrating to be sure, but at least it was repairable. You can add that to your "don't do this" list!