Saturday 23 July 2011

I've Been Wrestling a Walrus

Maybe I haven't actually been wrestling a walrus, but I sure feel that way. How on earth other quilters manage to quilt much larger quilts on a relgular every day sized sewing machine is beyond me. Trying to do the FMQ while keeping the weight of the quilt from pulling this way or that, or trying to slide to the floor completely has been...   um...   interesting.

This has been a completely different sort of quilting for me because any other quilts I have done free motion quilting on I have just covered the whole surface with my pattern of choice, started on one side and stopped when I had successfully negotiated a route to the other side. With these wonky stars I had to work around each star and make sure that I got around every side before I cut off a route of escape and sewed myself into a corner, so to speak.


It was a very convoluted route to sew.


It's a bit like map reading. Most men think we can't do it, but we get to where we want to be in the end.

Seeing as how I discussed my lack of prior planning when it came to doing the quilting on this quilt on yesterday's post, you might understand my amusement at my ability to learn as you go. While I was doing the borders I just jumped in and went with it. Therefore the first corner was a bit of a car crash in terms of knowing which way to go to accomplish a graceful 90 degree turn.


Things had improved a few corners later.


While I sat and worked my stitchy way around the quilt Helen was at the computer. (Briefly, the ban is not 100% any more but it is very much controlled time allowances now.) Helen was laughing away and I finally asked her what web site she was on. 'Your blog!' she replied. 'You are really funny, Mum.' Bless. One day she might even realise I am a person in my own right, not just her mother. Time will tell.

Going to go work on the binding now. I don't think that there is any question about it, it will have to be a scrappy binding. I don't think anything else would work with this quilt. Time to dig through the stash. Fun!

Susan

13 comments:

  1. I'm very impressed you know :-) I find wrestling the walrus in straight (well wobbly) lines hard enough... lol

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  2. LOL! Westling a Walrus is such an apt way to describe it! I think we should make it an official quilting term, instead of FMQ! Wrestling or no, your quilting looks fab! Jxo

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  3. Looks like you're winning! Can't wait to see the finished quilt.

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  4. Great quilting - time for you to start checking for peculiar comments! Maybe I am your daughter!!!

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  5. It looks great! I can't FMQ curves, can't even doodle them, and the thought of FM wrestling a full size walrus has very little appeal, it's bad enough squeezing him in a straight line ;o)

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  6. Well done Susan - is there nothing you cannot do? I pity the poor walrus myself! Haha such a great image! Is it lion taming next? And Helen is right - you are funny!

    Oh and great quilting - I fear I am too chicken to attempt it hence all my hand quilting.

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  7. Wrestling a walrus huh? I bet he was cheating and using his tusks! FMQ looking great. My creativeness today has extended to making a backing for my Marrakech Rose quilt. Woot woot!

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  8. Congratulations on the quilting.
    After quilting my hexagon almost twin quilt on my small-throathed Singer I can imagine what you mean about a walrus (and I haven't even tried FMQ it)
    You are right, scrappy binding seems a perfect choice for this quilt. I think I might have said it before, but can't wait to see the quilt finished.

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  9. Thought maybe you'd gone a bit overboard on the pink stuff when I read your blog title! Great metaphor for the quilting process, though. The quilt looks fabulous Susan. I hate the quilting bit myself but I LUV binding - something so therapeutic about it as a finish. Scrappy will be amazing on this quilt.

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  10. I got all excited when I saw your post title because I thought there might be actual pictures of an actual walrus and an actual battle.

    My disappointment was very short lived when I saw what a great job you've done on that quilt. Fantastic! Abd the walrus methapor is perfect for large quilts. It's HARD work!

    Have fun with the scrappy binding. I love scrappy binding.

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  11. Yes, we should be WWF (or whatever its called now!) wrestlers I reckon!! Your quilt pattern looks gorgeous. And good luck on getting your kids to realise you exist outside them....
    ps, we cancelled all the kids tv channels a couple of weeks ago and were shocked to realise they didn't even miss them! Cbeebies is all they have left, best thing we ever did!

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  12. Totally agree, it's very hard work, really hard on the shoulders. Love the post title.
    Your quilting is fabulous, good on you, I'm still too chicken to do anything adventurous. The scrappy binding will be the perfect finish. Can't wait to see it.

    Good luck with a child thinking you are a person, I'm still waiting.

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