Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Quilting an antique top...

Shewwww....it has been a long day of quilting.  First off let me start with the quilt that I had loaded on the frame in my last post.  I had mentioned that I was afraid that I might have some problems with it because the border fabric was not quilting fabric but upholstery fabric and also the backing was a very tight weaved bed sheet.  I use bed sheets all of the time but this one was very tight and stiff.  Anyway, I got it quilted and would you believe that it quilted up just fine!!!  I didn't have any skips or problems of any kind.  I had 2 thread breaks in the whole quilt but both times were my fault.  I already did the binding and returned the quilt to its owner yesterday.  

 I loaded my next one on the frame and it has been very slow going.  Right now I'm at a dead stop and probably will not pick it back up until tomorrow....maybe.  :(  This quilt belongs to a friend of mine and as you can see it is an antique top that has been hand pieced.  It has pleats and puckers all over it.  I dreaded quilting it when I first saw it but silly me decided to do it anyway.  Now I wish that I hadn't.  Most of the time I pin the quilt top on the roller and roll it up, but this one I couldn't because when I did that one end was about 5 inches shorter than the other.  So I decided to just float the top which so far is working out better for that part.  
 This is just a close up of one of the blocks.
 You can see a little more of the top here.  I have it stretched out pretty well but the border is where I am having most of my trouble.  
You can see here it is very wavy.  The border is not even the same size.  I checked one of the side borders and it starts out at 4 inches and ends at 6 inches.  :(  
I called her and explained this to her and she said, "just do the best that you can with it"  So I am trying...
 Look at this....see what I am talking about....
 I put the ruler beside it and there is a 2.5" bump there.  What do I do with that????  This is where I have stopped for today.  I just need a break from it and try to think on how to quilt this baby.  Btw...it measures somewhere around 80x90 but not exact.  
 At this point any ideas would be welcomed.  I mentioned taking the border off and trying to fix it that way but she doesn't want it removed because it is an old top and all hand pieced.  I also thought about just cutting that border right there, cutting some of it out and sewing it back together but I'm not sure she would want that either. I haven't mentioned it to her yet.  

Now on to other things...Andrew is on his way to Louisville, KY as we speak.  It will be a 7 hour round trip for him plus a 2.5 hour concert.  He and a friend of his are going to a Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang concert tonight at 7:30pm.  Andrew is a big fan of Buddy Guy which is a great Blues player.  You know how kids are he left right after class today, the concert will be over around 10pm, then a 3.5 hour drive back and then class again in the morning at 8am.  :(  He is killing me!  The worst part is they are forecasting bad weather tonight.  So please say a prayer for him.  I just pray that the Lord watches over him and he has a safe trip back home...
Kristie

10 comments:

Terry said...

That first quilt is so pretty! I can't imagine trying to quilt the second one. I would have just tied it if it was mine. Tying is much more forgiving than quilting. Good luck with it! :0)

Michelle said...

I would fix it the way YOU think you need to fix it, and ignore what she wants. She is being unreasonable. In the end, she will love what you did to it. You don't have to even tell her what you did. She will never know. I hate it when people make things difficult. (There I go running my BIG mouth again. Some people just do not understand when they don't do it themselves.) I'll shut up now.

Three Birds Inspired said...

When I have "extra" fabric to deal with I usually quilt the heck out of it with a small pattern which tends to suck up bumps but since you are doing a panto I don't have any good ideas. Also, I have never had to deal with bumps as big as those!

Janet O. said...

I recalled reading somewhere recently about how someone corrected this issue, so I searched a little and found their post. Don't know if it will work in your situation, but it may give you some ideas. Check this out.
http://jennysdoodlingneedle.blogspot.com/2012/12/lets-talk-quilt-borders-again.html

Dora, the Quilter said...

Anita has posted about how she handles quilts with "friendly borders." I don't have time to look for any of those posts right now, but her blog address is http://anitaestes.wordpress.com/

Wonky Girl said...

Oh my goodness. I would find it difficult to quilt for others for this very reason.

Katie M. said...

Janet O. and I must read the same blogs :-) Jenny did show on her blog how she deals with 'waves'. That's quite a bit of excess fabric - I would (and have) fold the pleat and quilt the dickens out of it. Even using a less dense quilting pattern, you could maybe do some dense quilting sporadically around the border where you have these areas of excess fabric - make it a 'design element'.. I know you'll make it beautiful whatever you do..

Regina said...

I have no advice- except step away when you need to!!!

Michelle said...

Oh, I feel your pain. I've had some like that and worse. :( I take pleats, just like that link above. On busier fabric, the pleats almost disappear...I'm not sure what will happen with a solid border. Good luck!!

Darling Jill Quilts said...

I hate having that much extra fabric! Just quilt in a large pleat and then hand stitch the pleat closed. The other thing I do when I have that much waviness is free motion so that I can work the extra fabric in by working at the front of the machine. Never pantos because you can never see what is going on. I hope it worked out ok!!