Saturday 10 March 2012

Ma'am, Step Away From the Machine!

There are days you are not meant to sew. But if you are stubborn like me you persist, to the detriment of your own sanity. I was determined to finish my Stitch Tease block today though. And I did. Only it took me way longer than it should have. Way, way longer.

I spent more time with this than the actual sewing machine -


Things just didn't go right. My brain seemed to be on holiday. It started okay. I managed to get the first bits joined up in a fairly logical way.


But the block was too narrow. I needed another big chunk down the length of it. And I needed to include some Sunkissed fabric in it. I forgot to tell you the other day, when I was writing about Stitch Tease, that we are each to choose a yard of fabric and use some of it in everyone's blocks so they have a unifying factor. I picked the Sunkissed you can see in the upper right hand corner of the photo below.


I tried to choose a fabric that worked with everyone's mosaics. Only I forgot to take my own into consideration. All that white background with the pale grey and small red dots does not work for my own quilt. Too pale! That was when the unpicking began and it continued for the remainder of the afternoon, or so it seems.

My new yard of choice for the quilt was one of the Bliss aqua fabrics. I pieced some into the block.


Yes, that great big chunk of blue on the right hand side. Even himself told me it was too big. And he was right. I just hate that. When my own husband is giving me better quilting advice than I am giving myself things have gone horribly wrong. I unpicked and I chopped and changed.


I am hoping I have the balance right now. Because I have stepped away from the sewing machine. I think I just might be a danger to quilting today. I am satisfied with the final results of my battle and that was more than I hoped when I was muttering and grunting earlier on.


I have dumplings to make - the traditional British kind that you cook on the top of a stew. And I have two girls to bring home from a birthday party. I will leave any further sewing until tomorrow. Probably for the best.

Susan

23 comments:

  1. It turned out great in the end - might just go ahead and make yours now, well not now exactly, a few months time... when I'm meant to!

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  2. Some days are like that. I fear I may be having one as well.

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  3. I hope you end the day with some lovely stew and maybe a glass of wine. I totally get the day, I have those more often than is reasonable. Your block is lovely in the end.

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  4. I think you`re being hard on yourself Susan...but it`s your quilt and you know in your mind how you want it to be. Looks great now! I haven`t been near a sewing machine for 3 days...must do some otherwise I`ll lose my mojo!

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  5. I hate it when days go like this! Most of my sewing days seem like this lately - however I think your block has turned out fabby!

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  6. feet up, glass of whatever you prefer (prf alcoholic...but the choice is yours) and you will feel better x

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  7. It looks perfect now! And thanks for sharing you lessons learnt you are making us all wiser!

    Drink up - you need a refill!

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  8. Stew and dumplings!! Yummy! Sorry, got distracted! The strip looks fabulous - I love the stars (particularly the teeny weeny one!) and your new 'Susan' fabric is a great choice! I love that Sunkissed fabric but you're right, it didn't play nicely with the other fabrics...have a lovely evening!

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  9. I know it was a lot of unpicking, re-doing, re-thinking and re-stitching which is REALLY painful, but it was TOTALLY worth it. It's beautiful! xx

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  10. sounds like a horrid day but I love the block!

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  11. I absolutely love this and I can't wait till I get my turn to make one of these blocks! I love all the Bliss fabrics too!

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  12. Oh Susan this is stunning!

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  13. You did well- despite all the frustration!! In retrospect maybe your stars could have been made from your feature fabric? I love your new fabric- its such a pretty colour!!

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  14. Well it looks great now Susan! Thanks for sharing the learning process :)

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  15. Really like how it has turned out! And I see you're only 1 away from a double century!! Jxo

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  16. Sometimes you have to unpick to make a great block. This looks like you had explained you wanted so I think you did well.

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  17. I know those days only too well! It turned out great in the end. I think you deserve that glass/bottle/flagon of wine!

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  18. Some days are like that . Good on you for your persistence. I would have muttered very un-polite things and chucked the whole mess into a corner.

    (Not saying your block is a mess - in fact I think it's lovely!)

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  19. Ugh, I just did a bunch of picking, too. A whole dvd's worth in fact. I really have to remember to check my tension before I start and keep quilting!

    The piece looks lovely now!

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  20. well sweets it certainly did come all right in the end :-)

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  21. I love this block, the colors are great .

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  22. Looks fab now, I'd acquire amnesia fairly quickly about the rest of the day if I were you... ;o)

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