Last night started out pretty well. I was productive in getting the charity quilt finished quickly and all running smoothly with Squiggy, the Mega Quilter. The frame was holding up nicely, too. I got everything prepped and started loading the t-shirt quilt onto Lenny, the frame. I had to take a short break and iron out the backing, but it wasn't anything major.
I decided on a black and white variegated Lava thread for the top and a grey Bottom Line for the bobbins and I wound 2 and a partial bobbins. I say a partial because I was trying to wind the bobbins on my Sidewinder, but I was having issues with the cone and the Sidewinder so I gave up and just wound the 2 full bobbins on Squiggy.
I started quilting and I was a little nervous about the bulk of the t-shirts and sweatshirts and the interfacing being a problem with the quilting, but the first few passes were as smooth as a baby's bottom. And I was listening to the iPod since it was fixed and just quilting away like there was no tomorrow!
Now, *insert several ominous tones here* this is where the story goes downhill for our heroine.
At one point, I had to rip some stitches out. Not a big deal, but I couldn't get the bobbin thread to come through to the top of the quilt. I walked around to the back of Lenny, the frame and with my LARGE scissors, I snipped the bobbin thread. I was quite proud of myself as I lowered the scissors and examined my work. Then ... I closed the scissors to lock them....
Apparently, the scissors are very sharp because I didn't feel very much resistance at all when I was closing them. Drat! (Not really what I said, but this is a mostly PG story.) No big deal though, the quilting was going well and I was happy to be able to be quilting again so I just grabbed another pair of headphones and moved along.
Until....
I am still really not sure what happened. I think that I blocked it out like the people who don't remember large chunks of time when they are in an accident or attacked. I do not hold Squiggy responsible for my injuries though. I feel that must be said!
Anyway, I was smoothing something out on the quilt top and my finger just didn't move fast enough. I do not know if the needle went from the top of the finger nail through to the bottom or if it just got a couple of 'bites' out of the fleshy part of my finger, but there was blood. Buckets of blood! OK, it wasn't buckets, but it did fill up a napkin quite well.
I sent Jen a text and she called me right back to ask how it happened and if it was OK and if I had to pull thread out of the wounds. (FYI - I did not.) I told her how I was telling her how Brenda from my sorority told me that you aren't a real quilter until you sew through a finger and my response was - if being a 'real' quilter meant that you had to be a dumb @$$, I was OK with being a fake quilter! So, I am now a 'real' quilter. yippee. (Can you sense my enthusiasm?)
OK, back to the quilting, I had to clean the quilt up a little, but luckily, the fabric was already red and it hadn't started to really bleed until I pulled my hand back to look at it. I finished up the quilting without any more incidents, cleaned up and went to bed!
6 comments:
And that my friend is why I love you. You can laugh at yourself!! Yes, you are now a quilter. One tip. Get yourself a little ihome boom box in pink and then it can go around the house with you when you want to sew and listen. It's much safer. I too have snipped head phones in the past. Heck, my mom vacuumed in a $50 pair. I'm just glad your finger injury wasn't as traumatic as mine. The stippling looks great. Using that other stabilizer really makes it pop. Did you use 80/20 or some other batting? If it's something else I wanna know what cause it looks cool for a t-shirt quilt.
The quilting looks great. Glad to know you are okay. I've clipped my headphones too. I think it happens to the best of us.
Ouch!
But the quilt looks great!
Quilt looks great! Take care of those fingers!
Jill, your great-grandmother, Amanda, worked in a baseball hat factory. She put the button on top of the hat with a mechanical punch. The punch came down and got her thumb and the button. The treatment they gave her was dunking it in a glass of whiskey. Your great-grandfather,her husband was a carpenter and whacked off his left pinkie. I think you'll survive. If you don't get lock jaw!!! When was your last tetanus shot? Love Mom
wow - I miss some reading and all heck breaks loose!
glad something more important was not snipped - and that the puncture was small....
no bleeding on the quilts!
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