Back In The Sewing Room

Last week I decided it was time to see if I could use my rotary cutter, and to my surprise and pleasure I discovered I could once again use it. It still takes a lot of effort and much more time, with plenty of rests in between, but I'm sure if my shoulder continues to heal the way it is, it won't be long and I'll be back to my regular pace.

With that being said I was itching to have a play with fabrics, but not yet ready to cut into these pretties.It will be a few more weeks until my shoulder and arm are strong enough to cut these up.

So I searched out the shelves and found a selection of fabrics that all went together well, and used this tutorial to whip up a lap quilt. The tops ready for the backing and quilting.

Now talking about quilting, I want to have a little rant. You may remember I showed this photo on my last post. I had sent it away to be professionally quilted.   I mentioned that I had to remove the binding that had been sewn on. There were many areas where the binding only covered a few threads while in other areas the seam allowance was at least 3/4 of an inch.

I'm not going to mention the person's name who did the quilting as she refunded my money, but I do want to say how terribly disappointed I was with the quilting. The photo below is one of the corners, that will now have to go on the side of the bed that doesn't get seen. If you click on any of the photo's you'll get an enlarged view.

This is a lovely tuck on the back of the quilt.

My borders which were beautifully even and square, now look like this.

The pieced backing that took hours to put together using the left over blocks was obviously not put on the quilting machine square, and was trimmed . It now looks like I was drunk when I put it together. I know every quilt should have a little humility in it, but there's enough in this one to last until the rapture.

I can't begin to explain how sick I felt when I opened my quilt up once it was returned. I'd spent weeks working on this and was looking forward to having it take pride of place on our bed.
So what are the lessons I learnt in all of this.
1. Always ask to see the work of the quilter you have chosen.
2. Make sure He/She does not have a "Not responsible for tucks or puckers" policy.
3. If you're not in the position to see their work personally, then ask your quilting/blogging friends for referrals.
4. Ask the quilter to email photo's of detailed work.
5. Research, research, research.

Happy Stitching.
Linda

Shades Of Blue

As I can't get to my sewing machine, I've been busy shopping. Lots of lovely parcels have been arriving in my mail box. Pretty shades of Aqua. (If you click on the photo's, you'll get a larger view)

Turquoise and Teal.

Haven't decided about these, they may stay or they may be tossed into the "I don't go" pile.

This will be the background, a lovely soft almost ice blue.

These definitely don't go they are either too green or too purple. That's one of the hard things trying to find colors when you're shopping online.

Put them all together and I'll have a lovely array of blues for a quilt for Jenna and Max, that they were supposed to get for their wedding two years ago. I'm itching to get back into the sewing room and make a start on the blocks.

You may remember these blocks that I showed, oh so long ago.

I sent off the finished quilt to have it quilted and it arrived home last week. The binding was attached for me, but after close inspection it needed to be removed. So now it's waiting to have the binding put back on and stitched down, then it can go on our bed.

Sending this quilt off to be quilted was a huge learning experience for me. Being that I tend to be somewhat of a perfectionist, can I say choose your long arm quilter carefully. From now on  Jackie will be getting my business on any of the larger quilts that I can't manage myself.

Happy Stitching.
Linda