STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID......................................

Well good morning everyone!!!   Ever had one of those days when you have done something so stupid that you can't even get mad at yourself because it was SO STUPID. Yup - yesterday was one of those days and I can only equate the entire episode to having completely LOST my brain. The end result is VERY embarrassing and I am going to share with you because it is a GOOD LEARNING experience.

I am a bit tired of learning experiences though. You know how your teenager tells you (or implies) that THEY know everything????   Well how come I am still making mistakes??????


Before I get to my mistake - let me show you what happened in M's life yesterday. She had to be downtown for an outdoor shoot - photo shoot that is........................

One of the pictures from the shoot. So she isn't making tons of money doing this, but she is happy. HEY - she sounds JUST LIKE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I picked her up from the GO train and then I was gone to the gallery for the afternoon. When I got home - she had a surprise for me.

She made apple crisp. It was very GOOD, not as sweet as I would have liked, but it was good. We did buy a little tub of vanilla ice cream to have with it!!!!

Then she was off to do some sewing on the muslin for her grad dress (which I thought fit very nicely, but she wants it tighter!!!!) ................ She was inserting an invisible zipper and OH DEAR - thank god mom has spare parts for the sewing machine.

AH - that zipper foot was on BACKWARDS and the needle had no where to go, but break and in the process, it broke the little gizmo that holds the foot. If I would have had not spare - I would be SCREWED. The broken little gizmo is in my IMMEDIATE pile of TO DO so I can get a replacement. Heck - I might get a couple of replacements!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Just in case!!!!!)   (I hope they have them in stock) My machine is now pretty much an antique (OK - so not that old, but by today's standards - it is old. Almost 15 years!!!!!!!)

I was out at the gallery volunteering yesterday. It was a bit of a crazy day - seemed like there were people coming and going - some of them were old neighbours of the location, some were visitors and some were there to work on the labyrinth that they are building in a nearby field. BUT I managed to get this done.............

Somewhere along the way, I acquired this hand appliqued quilt. Now the workmanship is NOT that great, nor is the fabric, but it is pretty. I know - NOT MY STYLE, but everyone should have a couple of old fashioned pretty quilts in their collection. 

The quilt was tied, the batting was too small and the front and back were whip stitched together. 

In a matter of minutes, I had that quilt in THREE pieces. And (this is IMPORTANT) - I was thinking - I could have just used this batting in my quilt that I am currently working on (more on that in a moment)

Folded up and ready to be dealt with. I am bartering some services for someone to hand quilt it  - might need new backing and the batting is just too small for the quilt. 

OK - so I know you are dieing to know what I did yesterday that was so stupid.

Let's start by having a look at this.................

Remember this picture from yesterday?   I had this nice quilt that I had added borders on and I was going to quilt those borders. 

The quilt loaded and ready to receive the first piece of batting

Fold back the border

Add the batting

Flip the border back and pin

In the process of quilting

Repeat on the bottom

Take it off - that is pretty heavy quilting compared to the rest of the quilt, but it doesn't look too bad. 

So I proceed to turn the quilt to do the top and bottom borders. Then I take the quilt off and place it on the machine. OH MY GOD - WHAT HAPPENED????????

The BUBBLE quilt

While it is a tad hard to tell the extent of the mess - this quilt has a HUGE bubble in the center of it. Once the last of the borders were done, they shrank right up and created a HUGE mess.

NOW WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO???????   This quilt is supposed to be in the Mississauga Quilt Show starting April 19. That means it has to be there on April 18 to hang. And in between, I have a couple more quilts to get done. OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


What happened?????   Well - I knew the batting I was using was a tad heavier than what was in the quilt.

Batting used - 

After zipping out to do groceries with M and then stopping at Tim's because I wanted a hot chocolate to console myself. NOPE - she conned me into ordering a green tea!!!!!!!!!!!!   Kids - too darn healthy if you ask me!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Anyway my brain is going  a mile a minute - what to do with the quilt? If I call Jane to pull the quilt - she will kill me. I will be disappointed because this was a block of the month that I won at the guild.

I decided to put the quilt in the show AS IS and I will put a note on it to explain what happened. I trimmed the quilt, made the binding and put it on.

Then I went to bed and all night, I am sure my brain was fighting me about this quilt. What to do - what to do?????    BUT this morning, I decided that even though it is going to be a HELLISH job - I am RIPPING out that stitching and will replace the batting (perhaps with that that I pulled from the applique quilt) and redo the border.


Now if one were to READ THE DAMN LABEL that came with the batting, one would IMMEDIATELY see that there was going to be a problem......................

Can you read that?????   FOR BEST RESULTS - Quilt FOUR OR FIVE inches apart. NOT ONE INCH. 

So why did I choose this batting and that type of quilting????

I hate polyester, but since the rest of the quilt was polyester - I had to go with poly.
I choose this particular bat because it was EXACTLY the size that I needed (oh boy - that's a VERY GOOD reason to choose a particular TYPE of batting).
I gave NO consideration to the fact that it was HIGH loft and the batting in the quilt was NOT.
I gave no consideration to the fact that this bat was VERY DENSE while that in the quilt was NOT.
 I was going to do something loose for the quilting design, but I figured that was copping out.
I choose that style of quilting because TWO inches apart wouldn't work - one direction of the quilt was 57 inches.



What is all the more embarrassing about this is that I SHOULD KNOW BETTER. I teach machine quilting, but honestly, I was so focused on getting the quilt done and it appeared to be OK after I took it off the machine to turn it that I kept going. DRAT DRAT DRAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Let's just say that I will NEVER make this same mistake again.

Thank goodness the border is very big so once it gets requilted, it will have to be retrimmed a bit.

OH WHAT A DOLT I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Let that be a lesson to M and all the other teens out there. Doesn't matter how old you are, or what your experience level is or how confident you feel in your workmanship - you can STILL SCREW UP from making a bad decision!!!!!!!!!!!!!


OK - I am laughing about this - I think it is hysterical. I think I AM hysterical which is why it isn't bothering me!!!!!!!!!!!   Wish me luck as I get that silly thing ripped out and requilted and the binding back on BEFORE Thursday AM. Never mind that I have TWO customer quilts to do as well.


On that note - I am out of here - I think I have a few things to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Oh yeah - want to guess what I am teaching this afternoon?????   Machine quilting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I think I might take the quilt to show them what can happen if they don't read the label!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!