When you have an idea pop into your head, you can try it out immediately, and the result is even better than you’d hoped it would be.

Despite all the misery, this quilt does have it’s enjoyable moments, like this one which is definitely a Quilting WFF. This is what’s supposed to happen when you quilt:

This is one of the machine embroidered medallions in the outside border of The Misery Quilt. I’ve been a bit worried about these medallions since the beginning; the flower is really dense machine embroidery and the medallions are fused to the olive green background fabric and then the edges are sewn with a very small satin stitch in #100 silk thread, and when you put that many variables together, sometimes the finished product isn’t going to lay flat. I’ve been afraid all along that it might end up looking slightly bowl-like and ruffly around the edges in the end.

As an added bonus to the host of unknowns, I really hadn’t figured out how I was going to quilt the gold-ish background fabric behind the flowers either. All I could think of was echo quilting, which is very heavy, close together stitching, and not only might that heighten the chances for a bowl-like, bubbly outcome, echo quiting isn’t my strong point and there are lots of little squidgy points and dips around the edges of the flower, so I wasn’t sure echo quilting in that area was going to go well.

This morning I had an epiphany about the background quilting, and thought that these radial lines might be cool, since the area could probably use some straight quilting lines anyway. I took a wild “hey that looks about right” guess and figured that dividing up the outside edge of the oval into 3/8″ bits would look good, and it divided up evenly, believe it or not. It worked perfectly, from the marking to the last stitch, and it’s perfectly flat without a bubble or ruffle in sight. I couldn’t stop smiling while I was quilting it, because I could just tell it was going to look soooo cool!

*sigh* This is how quilting should be all the time…mmmmmm. Feeds the creative spirit, it does.

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When you’ve found the perfect fabric for a quilt in your stash and you don’t have enough, but your favorite quilt shop comes through with the perfect replacement, and plenty of it!

Talk about a “make my day moment” and a WFF all in one! I’m planning a new quilt, and of course I had the perfect background fabric, but not enough of it. I tried a couple of other things from my stash, and none would do as well as the fabric I really wanted to use. I even called my buddy Liz to see if she had this fabric-from-who-knows-how-many-years-ago, and believe it or not, she not only knew exactly what fabric I was talking about without seeing it (scary), she found some in her sewing room!

Alas, even with her yardage, I was still coming up short, since I needed seven yards or something like that. I’d even ordered something from a shop on the internet, even though I didn’t figure it would be right when it got here. This is the downside to working from your fabric stash. Sometimes, desperation sets in. So in desperation, I went out to Patchcom to visit Birgit today, and she hooked me up with the perfect thing. It’s a fabric from the Krystals line from Michael Miller, and it’s no wonder that I found the perfect thing, since there are 180 different colors in that line I think.

To top off my good fortune and Warm Fuzzy Feelings, the fabric wasn’t even that expensive! I don’t buy a whole lot of fabric from German shops, because of the price difference partly due to the weak dollar, but when you have to have it, well, you just have to have it, and it’s definitely a bonus if it’s semi-cheap! I’m off to wash my fabric, and count this a successful and productive day, and it’s only early afternoon. Cheers!

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When your machine is having issues, but you know exactly what to do to fix the problem.

It’s a great WFF (and a relief!) when you are able to troubleshoot effectively to fix any minor problems you may be having with your machine during a quilting session. Keep the following things in mind to be able to solve pesky machine issues and maximize your quilting time. Read the rest of this entry »

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