Monday, February 16, 2009

It's Been One of Those Days

The kind of day when nothing goes right and you wonder why you bothered getting up. This is the baby quilt I quilted yesterday.


With Ben:



Without Ben:


I bought this kit years ago before my friend Sandy convinced me that babies like bright colours better than pastels. My friend Ursula just became a Great Aunt again and the new Grandpa also bowls with me, so I thought it only appropriate that the new baby should have a quilt.

The trouble started when I was doing the label. It stitched out beautifully - of course, it was wrong - but just as it got to the date I said - oh, darn it (well, what I actually said isn't fit to print) as I put on the wrong date:





If you click on this to enlarge it, you'll see I put January - hello - the baby was born last Wednesday which was February!!!! So, I tried to rip it out but that didn't work. Then I redesigned the label and tried to move the date and my name over and I was going to cut out the wrong part, but as you can see above, I didn't move it over far enough and it started to stitch over my name. I'm sure there is a way to do this accurately but I know diddly squat about my embroidery software.



Then I thought - let's just forget about the date and cut out all the wrong stuff (see above). This didn't sit right with me either which is why it's all wrinkled - I had it rolled up in a ball before I decided to take a picture. I wish I wasn't quite so anal about things like this, but I can always hear my Grandma's voice in my head telling me if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing right!

So, I stitched out another one and it's right this time!



I haven't cut the jump stitches yet - I heard there is a new machine out that does that. I must admit cutting the jump stitches is my least favourite part but I'm sure for the thousands of dollars it probably costs for a machine to do this for me, I can live with what I have.

My story isn't quite over - while this was stitching out, I was frogging. I stayed up until 2 A.M. last night frogging and I finally finished about half an hour ago. What took me no more than 10 minutes to quilt took me at least 12 hours to rip out. It was my own fault too - I knew my machine needed a new needle - it was telling me with the clicking noise it makes when the needle has a burr but I ignored it - thought I could get "just one more row". Wrong! My tension was off - intermittently, but enough to bother me. Now, why didn't I just rip out the bad parts and fill them in? Good question and I'm still asking myself why I didn't do that, but oh, no, I had to take the whole thing off and frog it all.

I'm not sure which hurts more - my wrists from carpel tunnel or my fingers from my arthritis. Tomorrow will be better, I'm sure.

5 comments:

SandyQuilts said...

Live and learn ... I avoid frogging as much as possible.

Ahhh the baby quilt is too adorable. Of course, is too cute and so so sweet. Kisses Ben.

Dorothy said...

Aw, that's sweet (in spite of everything it put you through.) Take an Advil, and tuck in for the night. Tomorrow's another day.

If it was me, I'd have quit after the date issue, and just NOT put the date on. I mean, mom and dad know baby's birthday, and I'm sure they'll tell her, too. ;o)

Jackie's Stitches said...

The quilt is cute and I love the label.

Some days things aren't easy.

Anonymous said...

Hmm...forgetting what month it is??? What could we attribute that to? Tell Leo you're catching up to us. BTW you're a fantastic lady whether your frogging or having 'one of those days'...
Warm Hugs...

Anonymous said...

What a sweet quilt. Yes, tomorrow will be better for sure. (Dontcha hate that pesky arthritis!!)