I was up early and decided to get something done before the day was over. I had put borders on this quilt top last night and that was first on the agenda. While quilting, I decided I should work on some more embroidery designs. I made a Superman symbol and Batman symbol and wanted to make Pikachu for my son to put on a hat. I'm now embroidering them onto heavy stabilizer and then stitching them to the hat. Less chance of stretching while the design stitches and then if it does mess up, I haven't lost another hat. I'll show you what I'm talking about in another post.
So, I started up the embroidery machine and picked out a backing piece. It needed to make it just a tad bit wider. Had the perfect piece already cut and I thought this was going to be a quick and easy quilt. Started doing some baptist fans on it and the thread kept breaking. After the 3rd break, I switched thread. Once that broke about 6 times I changed the needle. Then changed the thread again and finally figured out it was the batting. I am trying to use up some of the donated batting and I have some very thin poly that was just eating the thread. Sometimes the poly will have sharp bits in there that just chew through the thread. I found out that if I slow my machine WAY down, I can sew without the thread breaking. As I was quilting, I noticed the backing kept getting smaller and smaller. It was wide enough on both ends, but not in the middle. Ugh, I hate when that happens. Oh well, I would fix that after quilting. But, when I got to the end of the quilt, the backing was about 8 inches too short! How did that happen? I know the quilt will stretch, but really? That much?
So, I had to take the quilt off and cut some more fabric for the sides and bottom of the back of the quilt. I just laid it right sides together and stitched and the flipped so it covered the batting. Had to do that for 3 sides of the quilt.
Normally I give all my quilts to a friend or two to put binding on, but this one I couldn't let anyone see how I had messed up. So, I found some extra wide binding and sewed it on myself. I have a finished quilt for a teenage size boy or girl, but it took about twice the time it should have :)
Inbetween my quilt troubles, I was stitching out the Pikachu and the first one, the bobbin gave me troubles and I had to start over. The second and third I had shrunk down the size of the design, but the stitch density was too heavy and they puckered. 4th time's the charm right? I finally got one that worked and my son loved. Now to put it on something before I lose it.
Will post pictures of my embroidery efforts later. Off to shop at the GoodWill as today is 50% off clothing and shoes. My son needs a new suit for his California Honor Band later this week. He loves to wear suits anyways and I'm sure he will get good use out of anything we find today. There might even be a new pair of shoes if we are lucky.
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