Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Just me and my seamripper

I have been trying to finish a few things before I let myself "play" with my fun wheelies or start anything new. In an effort to reduce my "tops to be quilted pile", I tried to to meander/stipple this couch quilt. I took a machine quilting class several years ago, but had not actually done it yet. I had made this quilt top for our living room and it's pretty small, so I thought it would be a good one to start with. I did not pin or baste it. Instead I tried that spray-basting stuff. Hindsight being 20/20, I can see where I went wrong there. My sister loves it and swears by it. Maybe it would work better if I was not meandering and only using a straight quilting line, like in the ditch or something. For this, however, it did not work. At all. I had huge puckers and folds and I had no choice but to rip it out. So I have been ripping and ripping and ripping. It is not fun. My stitches are so tight and I am afraid I am going to make holes in the fabric, so it's slow going. I sort of want to just hide it away and start on something else, but this quilt matches our living room so I would like to put it on the back of the couch. I have made progress, though, and am more than a third of the way done. Not quite halfway yet, though.
This is really putting a halt to my sewing. I find myself gravitating toward reading or decorating or other things instead of quilting now, since I hate doing things like this. I am a champion procrastinator, and that's really showing right now. My mom said to just put it away and work on something else for now, so that's what I may do. I really should finish my charity blocks for Project Improv, and also work on the fish quilt, but this unfinished, poorly executed project is just sapping my motivation. Do other people feel like this when something doesn't turn out? Or am I just being whiny?

6 comments:

  1. Oh no- You're not being whiny. That would most definitely zap my crafting mojo. Can you set aside a certain amount of time and then reward yourself with a more fun activity? Like... if I work on this for 30 minutes I get to make a new quilt block type of thing.

    Don't give up though, I love the quilt!

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  2. i have a love hate relationship with my seam ripper. I NEED it and couldn't live without it but boy do I hate having to use it. just work on it for little bits of time. like 5 minutes at a time or something. that's just no fun!

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  3. My whole crafting world comes to a halt when I get to a step I don't like to do. And when a project is frustrating me, I'm so torn because I feel obligated to finish it, but at the same time I have no motivation for it...that's the worst.

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  4. oh...i can so relate...i have a love/hate relationship with my snarky seam ripper. i get just like that...surly..when things go bad. eventually though i just put my head down and do it. feels good when it's all gone. don't worry too much about the holes...i ripped a whole quilt with bad free motion and when it was washed...disappeared and looked like it had never been ripped and torn at for weeks.

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  5. I think your quilt is beautiful! I also know machine quilting can be frustrating when it is new to you. I do have a pretty detailed machine quilting tutorial on my blog if you'd like to take a peek. Hope it helps. Oh, and I think we should all make permanent seam ripper necklaces and wear them proudly. x

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  6. This is my biggest fear when I start to quilt mine! My seam ripper seems to be a part of my hand now! I love your quilts!

    Lynn

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