21 of 45 for the remainder of 2014
Yes, 2014 is speeding by at record pace, but this week has crept along at a snails pace. I didn't get much quilting in. In fact, this quilt was done last Sunday! A friend at work made it for another charity group and she asked me to quilt it for her a couple of weeks ago. I did a second one for her today and the reason it has taken me so long to get to it is because I had a quilt on the frame that slowed everything down. I was just giving me fits. My machine did not like that quilt at all. In fact, I actually gave up quilting it! That's the first quilt I've ever in my entire quilting career given up on. I did almost two rows of quilting on it and the thread broke about 2,457 times. I changed out the needle, loosened and tightened the quilt sandwich, changed the thread, cleaned the machine, changed the needle placement and finally decided it was the sparkly fabric with the little bits of glitter that the thread didn't like. There are just some fabrics that aren't good for machine quilting. I had slowed down the speed of the machine and even at the very slowest speed, the thread would break.
I am afraid that when the quilt goes through the wash, every one of those thread breaks will loosen up and the whole thing will fall apart. It is too bad because the quilt is gorgeous. I'm going to tear out the quilting (gently of course) and try a different quilt design. The design that is in there now is a snowflake one that gave me some problems on another quilt. It has a lot of sharp starts and stops and I had a few thread breaks on the last quilt without the sparkly fabric. I think the combination of sparkles and sharp turns is just too much.
99% of the time, quilting is an enjoyable hobby. When I come across problems like this, it just isn't much fun. Spending 4 hours on a quilt, only to have to spend another 4 hours ripping stitches out, makes for a not so fun time.
Today, I'm feeling pretty miserable with a horrible migraine. I'm supposed to be grading lab books. I brought home 2 boxes of them and it took me all week to get one box done. I have two labs in each book and another three books still at school. Even with all the help from my TA's and former student, I'm drowning in all the extra work right now. I just didn't need to feel yucky today. Of course, sitting on the computer procrastinating isn't helping anything either :)
Here's hoping your day is going better!
3 comments:
I'm sure all your stress is contributing to your migraine. Breath!
oh Marilyn, that is not enjoyable at all! I know with my Tiara I have to really loosen the tension with metalic thread. Hope you feel better.
I have had a few quilts that were just miserable to quilt and I've done my fair share of frogging quilting too...you have my sympathies!! And with the migraine too...definitely not good! Now, with your grading - that's why I was so very happy to teach a self-contained special ed class! Before I got a full-time teaching position, I did a long-term sub job in a 5th grade class for 3 months. I brought home 6 hours of grading every weekend and that was after staying until 5 every single day! I'll write IEPs for my kids over all that grading! Would NEVER teach English in middle or high school just because I would HATE to grade all those essays!!! Hope you get to feeling better soon and nail that naughty quilt with the new quilting pattern!!!
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