Saturday, April 21, 2012

Stuck

So for the first two-thirds of this attempt at FMQing everything was going fairly smooth... Not perfect by any stretch of the means... but smooth.  The majority of the back of the quilt looks similar to this (excuse the bad picture):


And then... this "Rat's Nest" happened (and this is even after I removed some of the stitching):


So what do I do now? This is on the last third of the quilt. My first thought was to throw it across the room and light it on fire.  After that I thought I could just cut a third of the blanket off... after that I thought maybe I should just remove more of the quilting and try again.  Maybe if I remove the quilting from the "Rat's Nest" all the way over to the right it might relieve it and maybe re pin it... any suggestions?


Is this primarily the result of a bad basting job?? Is this why people use spray basting? I pinned about every 5 inches... but I also don't really know how to start in the middle of the quilt without making a mess of the thread... so I have been working from the sides and I think it caused a bit of an issue -- obviously. 

Anyway...for now I am going to leave it alone and move on to sewing some squares together for my "Someday Chevron Quilt"

Alisa. 

3 comments:

  1. So sorry! I don't FMQ, but I feel your pain...I hate to have to deal with accidents like that. I am meeting with my long arm quilter later today, perhaps she will have some suggestions. Best of luck!

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  2. Thanks! I think I just need to take the stitches out and try again... I think I'm going to take a break from it for awhile though :)

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  3. You could of course try to tuck the puckers in and hand stitch (with a ladder stitch) to close them up as best as you can. Then keep FMQing over it. I'm not a fan of ripping out stitches - seiwng is the only thing that I get to do that STAYS done.

    I'd say it's probably a result of basting as well as going from all sides. I tend to start on the edge in the middle, then go straight across to the other middle side, then work my way to one side. then start back at the middle and go to the other side. Any warping or stretching will be easier to handle at the edges (where you can just unpin your basting and smooth it out), than in the middle. That being said I've been FMQing for about two years and still get puckers here and there. It's not major but know that it won't look nearly as bad once it's been washed and gets nice and crinkly. :) Keep at it - you'll get better!! :)

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