Wednesday, December 02, 2015

A Cautionary Tale

All of the quilting teachers who teach at quilting shows and have books and DVDs and online classes are perfect and never make any quilting mistakes.  You know this, right?  Well, all of them are EXCEPT ME!  My motto is "If I can't be a good example, at least I can serve as a cautionary tale."

I am home for the entire month of December and am taking some time to finish up old quilting projects.  I am currently quilting an orphan block quilt and trying out some of my yummy FabuLux thread (Ocean Breeze).  It's soooo pretty!

I pet my quilts as I leave them for the evening (doesn't everyone?) and last night as I was leaving my studio I petted my quilt goodnight and felt a bump.  A bump?  Inside my quilt?  Yep.


I felt it and moved around the bump until I figured out what it was:  a spool of thread.  Sadly, I had already stitched down all of the sashing around that block.  I wondered where would be the best place to unpick the machine quilting so I could slide the spool of thread out from inside of my quilt.  I decided to not unpick any machine quilting but rather unpick part of a seam:


I unpicked about 10 to 12 stitches and then slid out the (blessedly nearly empty) spool of white Konfetti thread.


Why was there a spool of white cotton thread inside of my quilt?  Well, it's mostly a mystery but I do know that the thread was near my quilt because I am whip-stitching batting scraps together for the inside of this quilt while on the quilting frame (large, flat working surface).  I guess the thread got away from me and hid between the layers of the quilt.

I used that thread, though, to stitch the seam closed:


If you look very closely, you can see my hand stitches:


But this is a quilt made of orphan blocks.  If you look closely, or even glance casually, you will see a wide variety of issues.  I'm making this quilt because it is bright and happy and someone will love it and not really care that there are a few hand stitches repairing the escape hatch I made for the spool of thread.  The recipient might even enjoy the quilt more once they know the story!

So, the moral of the story is:  NEVER QUILT A SPOOL OF THREAD INSIDE OF YOUR QUILT!  If I'm allowed a second moral to the story, it would be:  Frisk your quilts regularly, looking for smuggled goods.

My role as a cautionary tale has been fulfilled.

13 comments:

Diana Louie, The Village Fabric Shoppe said...

I feel your pain in this process, I once somehow hand quilted a small pair of embroidery scissors into a quilt. I wonder if our quilts are trying to smuggle things or maybe they just like being frisked.

LindaGosselin said...

Hmm, well, that's one place I have not checked for the 12x18 cutting mat I have misplaced!

Linda Stoll said...

I'm taking this with me, Debby --> "If I can't be a good example, at least I can serve as a cautionary tale."

Amen!

;-}

sgardner said...

I sewed a pin inside a quilt once, and caught it when it was on the longarm. You are very brave to show pictures of this event that most of us blush in secret and vow never to disclose!

Diane said...

It was worse when I handquilted everything, but I swear I end up quilting enough of my own hair into each quilt top to make at least a small placemat. Tweezers and lint rollers generally correct the problem. Maybe wearing a hairnet while quilting would prevent the problem in the first place!

LindaB said...

Thanks for the laugh. I needs that today.

LindaB said...

Thanks for the laugh. I needs that today.

Mary said...

That's quite a bump you had to remove. Good you didn't try to quilt over that spot yet.

Vireya said...

That's the funniest thing I've read today. Thanks for the advice!

Phyllis said...

Do you always quilt the sashing before quilting the block

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

I found a straight pin in a quilt once, so I understand about stowaways. That is good advice. I do need to frisk my quilts more often.

Always In Stitches said...

I had just finished Quilting a quilt. While in the process of getting my finished masterpiece something bit me. Holy smokes I had to carefully pet the quilt again. Found it. It was a long corsage pin I used to pin the quilt to my leaders. How I never hit the pin while Quilting I will never know. I had heavily Quilted this masterpiece. So how can I get this out? No escape trail possible, I pulled it through up to the pearl and cut it off at the pearl. I explained to my customer that according to tradition I inserted a good luck pearl into her wedding quilt. We had a good laugh. As far as I know that "good luck" pearl is still there.

Helen said...

So funny !