Sewerella

First, the bad news. Or wait, first the good news!

I went to my first Toronto Modern Quilt Guild meeting last Sunday and I had fun! It was so nice to meet other quilters of all different ages and backgrounds-all women though. I know male quilters exist, I’ve just never had the pleasure of meeting one. Anyway, the meeting went like this: we all introduced ourselves and the woman that heads it, Kaye, told us all about the Spring Quilt situation in Utah and showed us her show schwag of which I was pretty jealous. I’d LOVE to go to that show but it’s not open to the public, wah! Then everyone showed off their latest projects and we all oohed and aahed and it was very cool to see all kinds of talent and technique.

Then the challenge. We have all been given a Kona charm pack and we have to make a quilt (whatever size/shape) using it and ONE metre of any other fabric (but only one type of fabric, not a bunch of fqs) for the front and whatever binding and backing. Sounds good, right? Well…The charm pack has it’s charm, I guess, but it’s certainly not any colour scheme that I’d chose. It’s dull and earthy and I felt pretty nervous looking at it. SO much beige has never been in my possession. Eek. Ok, so I chose a fabric, it’s a book print by Victoria and Albert (on sale for $7 at the workroom!) and got to designing. I wanted the fabrics to go as far as possible, to make the biggest quilt I could and I also wanted to keep with the book shelf look-AND I like a simple pattern and here is my finished top:

So far so good. The problems have come with the actual quilting portion of the show. I pin basted and started sewing straight lines across (as the picture is, left to right) not in the ditch but above and below each ditch but something weird was happening: the top was getting all bunched and puckery at the end of each row, getting worse and worse and after 4 double rows (ACK!) I gave up and tore out the stitches and pins and blamed the backing fabric (which I got at Value Village and is kind of cheap feeling but pretty). Ok. So I picked a different backing fabric (green from Ikea, fabric I’ve used for quilting lots of times with no trouble) and the same thing is happening. And I promise I’ve used a lot more pins and I also hand basted with thread, all around the edge.

So what the hey? Why is this happening? Is the top not ironed properly? Should I try super steaming it and using spray starch to keep it orderly? Gah. I’m feeling so very frustrated.

Ok. That was the good news rudely interrupted by the bad news. Now in the other news, I’m plotting a purse using plank print fabric from Ikea. I just need to figure out the lining and get me some rope for the handles. I love this print!

Can’t hardly wait to have me a new summer handbag that doesn’t rip my dang hair out all the time!