Friday, September 28, 2018

September Finish



Maize and Blue
(pattern by Laurie Simpson)
My One Monthly Goal for October.
I put off quilting Maize and Blue for so long that I almost ran out of time to finish it by the end of the month. The large zigzags that I had intended to quilt with feathers ended up with some "point to point" quilting and looks a lot like orange peels. I never really know exactly how I will quilt a top until it's loaded on my machine and this is just what happened--lol! 

Willow was pretty helpful....not!
I float my tops when I quilt them on the HQ16, which means the batting and top drape down to floor creating a doggy playground. Willow tore a huge piece out of the batting, resulting in the need to hand tack a new corner of batting to finish the quilt. Then, as I approached the bottom of the quilt while quilting, I discovered a nice naughty little bite out of one of the gold border squares.

Miraculously, I managed to find a piece of the same fabric in my 2" square scrap box. I had to hand applique a little patch over the damaged corner while it was still on the machine. Yeesh! 
I hate changing threads, so I quilted all the blue parts and then rolled the quilt back up as I did the gold areas. My thread was Glide--a very slippery thread that I avoid using, but were the right colors. The thread likes to pop out of the  tension discs, so I wrapped the thread around them twice and loosened the tension. That worked out great until I switched to the gold thread. It would not stay in the tension spring, resulted in major eye-lashing (loops) on the back. Lots of ripping and re-quilting--I'm so glad to put this quilt in my rear view mirror! 

This is the back--mostly flannel which I can see already is going to be a dog hair magnet! 
Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE

14 comments:

  1. The quilt is lovely, even with the last minute fixes. (Bad dog!) I can see why you were aiming for feathers on the zig-zag, but I like the orange peels. I like your backing, too!

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  2. What a little stinker! I keep having to replace blocks when I have already sewn the whole top together. That's hard enough, I can't imagine trying to fix the block while it's on your quilting machine.

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  3. Congrats on another great finish Karen, I can understand why you are glad it’s done and dusted with having to overcome those Willow challenges.

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  4. My first quilt back in the 80s was made using these colors. Just gorgeous together. So glad you were able to repair it and get thru the crazy thread adventure. It all adds up to becoming a master, anyway that is what I keep telling myself. LOL

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  5. Gosh, what a lovely finish! this is such a beautiful quilt--i am awed with your ability to put colors and patterns together...hugs, Julierose

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  6. Your Quality Control officer hasn't quite mastered the finer points of the job, yet. :)
    It is a really pretty quilt in a classic color combo.

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  7. Your quilt is spectacular! Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish.

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  8. What a beautiful finish! I love those colors together. It's a good thing Willow is so photogenic. Otherwise, you might not have been able to overlook his naughtiness.

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  9. what a funny story - Willow didn't mean to taste it, lol.
    Great save and wonderful quilt. the quilting pattern looks wonderful on this.
    congrats on a lovely finish.

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  10. You are quite talented at machine quilting. I am not. I need to practice, practice and I never think to take the time to do it.

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  11. First, Willow is sooo fun on your bed !! :)))
    Second, your quilting is awesome ! wow ! Congratulations Karen ! You did a great job !

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  12. This is a beautiful quilt Karen and your did a magnificent job of covering the bite mark! Aren't dogs such fun!!!! Christine xx

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  13. My little doggy baby thinks that whenever I am hand-quilting with a small hoop or hemming my blinding that the part of the quilt that sits on the floor is his new bed. So we have this little quilting dance of rolling him off to move it to a new position and then he cozies in again until the next roll over, LOL. Aren't they so much fun :)

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  14. The quilt looks great with the quilting design you have chosen. Love the texture. And well done with the surprise repairs that were needed along the way.Hope there are not too many more of those.

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