Tuesday, April 15, 2014

 As I examined these blocks it all started to come back, the real reason I didn't finish the project. The ladies I were doing the class for were adamant that they didn't want to do any handwork at all, so I sewed the centres and outer frames on with a tiny zig zag stitch. At the time I only had access to a 1950's machine and while it sewed a beautiful straight stitch, the zigzag was a bit errratic.
 This didn't matter on the pink, where it wasn't so noticeable, but on the yellowy floral it seemed to stand out rather more.Sometimes the machine  would throw a hissy fit and put in two or three straight stitches before going back to zigging or zagging, which made me despair of ever doing a neat job. I got the blocks done for the class but I was so dissatisfied I haven't been able to touch them since.

Enter 2014 and the steely-eyed determination to finish long standing UFO's. I decided to unpick the zigzag and hand applique all the blocks, but I've found it's not easy to tease out the tiny litttle stitches. I've done the centres in two small blocks, and half of the large one, and have come to the conclusion I can live with the pink stitches. They really aren't too bad, and it's going to take me days and days to finish them otherwise.


If I can get all the centres and the large block appliqued I'll be perfectly happy, and then I can concentrate on the setting.

I like the idea of some sort of medallion and have been experimenting with leftover small blocks and  cut out pieces.Perhaps some diamonds and four patches....

or maybe a little twisted diamond border..
or a zigzag diamond? I'm going to have fun working out the measurements and playing around with other ideas, but first I have to get back to the unpicking, sigh.

The moral of the story is to do things the way you want to, otherwise you'll never be happy with the end result!

2 comments:

Linda April 15, 2014  

Seeing as I'm a very lazy quilter, I think I would have used my now good zig zag machine to go over the previous stitching--maybe even make it a very dense zig zaq so it looks like satin stitching. Would be easier than unpicking? Lurking Linda

Sandy April 16, 2014  

Amen to that!

My rule of thumb these days is, if it bugs me now, fix it now because it will surely bug me even more later!
While it's great to move things forward, the further you go down the road from that wrong turn, the longer it will take to make it right.

That said, there is a point of diminishing returns. In your case the result should be worth it.

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