4/15/15

Steer Clear of the Rocks

It's been steady quilting for about the past 36 hours. I did take time out to sleep and eat, but that's about it. Oh yes, and I remembered to pet the kitties. But then I was right back at it, quilting my guts out until I am happy to say I have finished quilting the rubber duckies.

It took me most of the day to finish the block sets yesterday. At one point I took the quilt off the machine and laid it on the floor for a picture. Then I turned around to reach for my camera, and when I turned back...


Oh...hello!

Well, I wasn't quite finished yet, but when I had all the block sets finished it looked like this: 


Here's how it looked from the back:


Here's a close-up of the front:


When I quit for the day, just the borders remained to be quilted. 

This morning, I started on that first thing. I was doing my version of a motif I saw on the Inbox Jaunt. Lori Kennedy calls her version "Paper Clip". As I linked to that, I realized mine was just a little bit different...sort of a more controlled spiral than I usually do.


As I've been quilting with the yellow thread, I've been keeping an eye on the spool. I had just a 250-yard spool of it, and I worried that I might run out. The closer I got to being finished with that color, the less I worried about it. 

So I'm going along on my yellow border there, and I'm thinking to myself how well it's all going, and I'm going pretty fast, and it's just smooooooooth sailing, right? Well, I should know by now that as soon as you start thinking it's smooth sailing, you'd better be watching ahead because you're about to steer your boat right onto the rocks. And sure enough, when I had like one more round-about to do, I ran out of yellow thread. @#*%@#!!!


See that tail in the image above? That's where I started. That's where I wanted to finish. Dang! Can you believe that?


Oh, but don't forget to check the back because the tension was all effed up there too. Thanks a LOT, Obama!


So I had to take the stitching out about three twists and turns back to here:


Fortunately, I had a thread color downstairs that was almost exactly right. It isn't the nice YLI, but it worked so that I could finish this up. I think it looks fine.


And it only took me about a full hour to get going again so that I could finish because I was having trouble getting my tension right.

Anyway...here's how it looks from the back:


And then I just had the outer border to do. I had in mind to do a different design when I started this, but then decided to echo the water theme from the duck blocks. It's essentially a meander that wanders far and wide. Simple and fast. I kind of let the ducks tell me where to stitch.


And here's how it looks from the back:


So I'm ready to do something else for a while. I need to feed the birds, walk on the treadmill, chase Smitty around a little, make some stuff for dinner tonight. Before the day is over, however, I'm going to find the time to get the binding sewn onto this quilt and then it will be headed toward the finish line.

23 comments:

barbara woods said...

love your thanks a lot Obama, sounds like a lot of people i know, blame it on Obama.! every little thing. Like when you don't look for a job and it's Obama fault that one doesn't land in your lap. Out grands over sleep so can't go to get a job!!!

Bobbie said...

Ugh to run out so close to the end! Rocks indeed! Thankfully you were able to paddle out of them quickly and found the right thread! I love the duckies and the waves! I am supposed to be navigating rocks right now finding a substitute for supplies not in hand but decided to stay run aground for a while longer :)

Sher S. said...

love the baby quilt, it really is special. It never fails to have thread run out when you don't have a back-up spool waiting in the side lines. If you had the extra spool you wouldn't need it. Smitty seems to have given it his purrfect approval though.

quiltzyx said...

I think Smitty enjoyed hanging out with those duckies, don't you? Sorry to see that bad acting corner! But I can't tell the difference between the 1st & 2nd threads from here, so it must be just fine. I really like the quilting of it all!

Anonymous said...

HI, neat project!
We've all done this, I suppose ♥
msstitcher1214@gmail.com

Lynette said...

Aww, man! Hate those kinds of things! The second yellow looks absolutely fine, though. Perfect water meander on that outer border.

Shirley said...

Beautiful quilt - beautiful cat! Love the quilting and your save on the thread was perfect. It so inspiring to see your projects. Thanks for sharing.

Lyndsey said...

Great quilting and I really like the water meander, it makes the ducks swim. Smitty has done a fantastic job of supervising the quilting.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Lovely save on the thread - I do like that motif and must remember it. Super water meander for the grand finish. And Smits approves with two purrs up, so well done.

Cath said...

Despite the hiccup, you have got to be thrilled with you efforts......looks fabulous! How did you baste this one? I can't work it out.

beaquilter said...

Ohh I hate unstitching, but at least it wasn't THAT much, I laughed at who you blamed....

Anonymous said...

want you to know the following I received a short time ago:

Thank you for your submission for the 2015 National Quilters Circle Blogger Awards! You have been entered to win an annual Premium Membership to National Quilters Circle.

We appreciate your participation in our nomination process and encourage you to spread the word to be sure your nominee gets recognized. Please feel free to let them know you’ve nominated them and direct them to our site where they can grab the Blogger Award Nominee Badge to encourage their readers/followers to continue to nominate and then vote for them.

P.S.Perhaps so many of your commenters are anonymous because there is no personal email address option in the Comment as: box.

from Marie Godfrey, mgodfrey39@gmail.com


Cathy Smith said...

The "new" yellow thread looks fine! Don't worry about it! As I always say, we are our own worst critics! I LOVE the quilting meandering through the border ducks. Perfect choice!

Junebug613 said...

As always, you do marvelous work! This one came out so cute! It's always right at the end, when you can see the finish line, that stuff inevitably goes awry. It happens all the time to me, even when I'm sewing the tents at work.
I'm a little behind on your posts, with our wacky schedule lately, but since our geriatric dog can't sleep, neither can I, so now's my chance to do some reading!

Barb H said...

Nice save on the yellow thread, Barbara. Love it how problems are blamed on Obama but never solutions! Ha! Baby and mom will love this quilt.

Dana Gaffney said...

Nice save with the thread color, I don't see any difference. I've been having so many tension problems lately, I feel your pain.

Diane Wild said...

Seems my bobbin goes empty about 2" from the finish. Quilter's law. A beautiful job. Sew on.

Unknown said...

If it had been me, I would have done simpler quilting, or maybe even quilted by checkbook! You did a great job! Love those duckies! Very cute quilt!

Lou said...

The duckies turned out wonderful!!!! I always worry about the thread running out...I try to look ahead and order extra so I can have it just in case... usually don't need it but you know I would if I didn't have that extra spool!

liniecat said...

This is looking so great and the quilting really sets it off too.
It reminds me of a delightful children's story book I adapted for work last year.
Written by Eric Carle it's based on a true event where plastic animals fell overboard from a ship and ended up washed ashore all over the world!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKLDxiIFFIA
Ten Little Rubber Ducks

Michele said...

Yeah for you for getting it done.

Dar said...

You did an excellent quilting job, even with your unfortunately running out of thread. I can't see a difference in color from my computer screen. Looks great all over. I take a water sprayer and mist the removed thread holes by running my fingernail over the line of previous stitching. It closes up the previous stitching line and no one is the wiser. Of course if you are washing a quilt before gifting, then this step is unnecessary.

Brown Family said...

I know you are happy to be finished!