Sunday 5 June 2011

Down Patchwork Lane

I have signed up for weekly quilting classes in my local area. I have had two classes at Down Patchwork Lane. It's amazing to me how little I get done in three hours! I know I am a slow worker but really, the output is almost non existent!

The first week I managed to applique around one house and add the top and bottom parts of the frame. Of course, I realise there's more to it - there's winding the bobbin and threading the machine and doing a test run of the applique stitch and pressing and measuring and cutting and talking to the teacher - but there isn't much to see for the effort expended! I didn't take any photos - what was there to show you?

The second week, I showed the finished quilt that DD and I had made and discussed its shortcomings with the teacher (apparently we didn't pull the top tight enough before we pinned it).

Then, I pressed and cut and unpicked several times and finally finished the frame of the first block



This is what the back looks like!

and then  I wound a bobbin and threaded the machine and talked to other class members and the teacher and started the applique on the second block and unpicked some more


At home, I finished the applique on the second block and managed to applique three more of the houses (with more unpicking and bobbin winding and threading of the machine) before I realised that I had done all that machine 'embroidery' without use of the "stitch and tear" stabiliser I had bought just for the purpose!



But that is not the reason why I stopped! Yet again, I have to unpick that pseudo-blanket stitch (it's really blind hemming stitch because DD's machine doesn't have blanket stitch and I didn't want to use zigzag or satin stitch) and that's really difficult when the stitches are a fraction of a millimetre apart!

Delighted Hands, I am even more in awe of your daily output!

3 comments:

  1. Hi Lynne, thanks for stopping by and your kind comment. Your blocks are cool. I did a small house block and I used zigzag stitch as I did not know what other stitch to use, but your stitch is great much neater. I will try it again.
    Siobhan :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. i'm exhausted just reading this!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Slow and steady wins the race! The blocks are turning out perfectly-nice work! The stabilizer will make a nice stitch for you (when you remember to use it!) Keep working along and eventually you will have the quilt blocks ALL DONE!

    ReplyDelete

Hi. Thanks for dropping in. I look forward to reading your comment.
I like to answer comments; if you are "no-reply blogger" I will try my best to get back to you on your blog! I'm not on FaceBook so I can't contact you there!