Sigh..............

 Sometimes it seems as though nothing is going to be quick and easy.

After I finished basting the center panel of the Alphabet quilt, I stitched 2 more letter sections. I went much easier than removing pins but all the turning I had to do using the walking foot turned out to be a huge struggle, much more than I expected it to be.  I came to the conclusion that it could not be any worse to do it free motion and it might be better, and it was. 

The numbat and octopus were done with the walking foot and the reindeer and the sheep were done free motion. I had a little less control that I wanted but it was no harder on my hands than with the walking foot. From that point the quilting process moved along much faster.

I took a break to do something and when I returned to my machine the foot control would not work. I checked everything, it was plugged in, I could move the needle up and down manually by turning the wheel ,the machine turned on and off the way it always does, there was nothing that appeared to obstruct the full compression of the pedal. This pedal is not a genuine Bernina but it was half as much less than the cost of the Bernina and all the reviews on amazon were good. It worked perfectly from the day I started using it until that day. I was completely frustrated and needed to consider what to do next. I moved furniture and set up my other machine for quilting.  I have never used this machine for quilting and though it was far from ideal, I thought it would work. It did not. I could not get a decent stitch.

I asked my friends for help and one of them was going to let me try her foot pedal to see if the problem was my machine or my foot pedal.  I go my Bernina up on the tale again and just on the off chance that the foot pedal would work I tried it and it worked.

So..... back to work. I had about an hour to sew and I got ready and found this on the back of the quilt.

Somehow a sheet of wrapping paper found its way onto the table next to my machine. There it is, stitched right on to the back of the quilt. I started to cut it away but looked at the stitches and saw that they needed to be removed. I have no idea where that wrapping paper came from. I don't remember seeing it in the last 15 years. The 4 foot table next to my machine is right inside my sewing room door and often I will set things there that I need to put away somewhere else. I had been digging in my hall closet for something and that is probably where the wrapping paper was hiding before it flew across the hall onto my table.

Well, the wrapping paper stitching is gone and I have another hour or so to quilt. I may not finish this quilt this month but I might.

We'll See.

Sometimes the long way is the shortest route!

My bright idea with the 1/2 inch applique pins wasn't such a good idea after all. The first motif, the numbat, was really easy but the octopus was not! I had to reposition the quilt many times while quilting the octopus and the little pins kept slipping out. There was not as much twisting and turning and stuffing the quilt under the arm of the machine with the numbat. I did some more quilting on the pinwheel border while I thought about what to do.  Removing the safety pins as I quilted was really hard at times for my old fingers so I decided the easiest/fastest option was to baste the panel. It is taking a long time but I know it is going to work out better/faster in the long run.

The numbat and the octopus are quilted. Below them, you can see my basting and the 3 1/2 inch needle I am using. I have some long needles from making cloth dolls and they are fairly easy for me to hold. However, it has taken me over a week to almost finish basting the panel.  There have been too many interruptions and not enough "getting back" to the task at hand. 

I am not so sure I will finish by the end of the month; who knows how many more times I will need to do something I hadn't planned on or how any hours I will have to sit waiting "on hold" during a necessary phone call.  I am going to set my timer for 15 minutes when I can't have a big chuck of time and I will get it finished.  We'll see how that works.

Tedium Awaits

 I knew quilting the Alphabet panel would be tedious but I think I underestimated just how much that would be.  I have stabilized the borders and quilted the pinwheels in the top and bottom borders. I decided to quilt around one or two of the animal sections to see how it was going to work.

This photo is the somewhat unorganized pin basting. I had pinned all over the panel to flatten out any bubbles and wrinkles. I knew I would do a little more pinning when I started to quilt.

This is the one section I quilted. I knew right away that the safety pins were gong to be a problem. Using the walking foot requires  lot of turning and repositioning of the quilt and the safety pins kept getting hung up on the foot. I had already ruled out free motion quilting. A little might be OK but not this much and not   so close around the various small elements. I need to have more control than my fingers can manage.

This is my solution. As I start on each new letter, with all the little bits around the animal, I will replace the safety pins with 1/2 inch applique pins. I was able to work around the pins without taking them out and there wasn't any problem with getting stabbed by the little pins.

This is not going to be fast and stitching a few stitches and turning and repositioning the quilt is gong o be tiresome. I think I can manage two letters/animals a day. I will work on the rest of the pinwheels as I go along. Small pinwheels have gotten pretty tiresome too. 

I like this quilt enough to stick with it. Maybe I can get it finished in a month. 

         We'll see!