Helping a friend, or how not to make a quilt--(Long & Beverage Warning)

I've got a friend who decided to make a cross stitched baby quilt and
she only had a month to do it all. She has never read a quilting
book, or watched anyone else make a quilt, so she was a little
clueless about quilting. But she is the type to jump into a project
with both feet and try her heart out. She made 9 blocks cross
stitched with Winnie the Pooh and friends. She did the stitching on
muslin about the size of men's handkerchiefs using waste canvas and
they were very nice. She stitched every spare moment she could,
including at an out of state business course, and still had to stitch
through one night instead of sleeping just so she would have one day
to get the other supplies she needed for the quilt, and one night to
put it all together. Her plan was to set the nine blocks with sashing
in a straight setting. Simple enough that when she was telling me
about it I thought she knew what she was doing.

After a frantic trip to find some Pooh fabric for the backing and
sashing strips she was all set to start. She cut the sashing strips
and for some unknown reason she made tubes out of the first strip of
sashing. Even her DH knew something was terribly wrong with her plan,
but she shhhed him and continued making her sashing tubes. She turned
the tubes right side out and called me to ask for my iron. She came
to my place to do some ironing. While I did some hand quilting, she
ironed all the blocks then started ironing her sashing. This is when
I looked up and saw the tubes. I asked her why she made tubes while
trying hard not to laugh. She replied that it was part of her plan.
I didn't want to upset her too much so I quietly asked her how she
planned to attach her sashing to the blocks. She said it made perfect
sense to her before she made the tubes, but now that they were sewn
and turned she wasn't so sure about it. So we had a good laugh while
ripping the seams of the tubes, then she started ironing them flat
again. And I realized she didn't know the difference between ironing
and pressing.

I looked at all the parts of this soon to be top, and I don't think
there was any piece that was not stretched out of shape. I taught her
the difference between ironing and pressing. I did some ironing to
square up what I could because it was now 10:30 pm and the shower she
was giving was the next afternoon. She was way beyond the 11th hour
on this project and she had to make the special cake for the shower
after she finished the quilt. I tried to get her to let me help her
put together the top at my place, but she would only sew on her
machine which was currently at her DH's place of work because there
was a big table in the kitchen that she could use, so off we went.

Once there, I asked her to lay out the blocks the way she wanted them
on the quilt. She got that done and I laid the sashing in the correct
places. This was when I noticed the sashing was not the same length
as the blocks. Ok, cut off excess and hand her the first two pieces,
matched up but not pinned because she had no straight pins with her,
and continue until we have three rows of three blocks with the short
sashing. The machine wasn't sewing nice flat seams, but she was just
happy things were getting put together. We fiddled with the tension
several times but the big problem was the presser foot. It did not
come with this machine and I've never seen one like it. Totally flat,
no rise in the front or back. Because this foot didn't come with the
machine I am sure it wasn't supposed to fit but she had put it on
anyway, and the foot was putting too much pressure on the fabric thus
the feed dogs were not working properly. She had not brought her box
of feet with her, so she just ploughed onward.

Once we had all the rows done they needed to be sewn together. The
rows were not straight because all the pieces were not the same size
to start with, but they could have been trimmed to something closer to
straight if we had a pair of shears with a blade longer than one inch.
However she had expected to only need to snip thread, so she didn't
have any shears, only a small pair of needlework scissors. Time for
me to sit at the machine and ignore the material edges and try to make
a straight seam. Did I tell you I had never seen a presser foot like
the one on her machine? For the first time in nearly 20 years of
sewing there was no part of the presser foot rising above the fabric
to warn me to move my finger, and I have no depth perception. My
finger went right over the thin presser foot because it was pressing
the fabric so hard there wasn't any difference in height at all. Yep,
that needle went right through my finger, nail and all. I moved fast
enough that it didn't have time to bleed on the fabric. My friend
calmly stated that I was now a real seamstress because you can't call
yourself that until you have sewn you finger at least once. I bit my
tongue so I would not remind her who was the newbie at sewing. She
finished sewing the top while her DH ran for a first aide kit. I only
needed a bandade but he bandaged my finger to within an inch of it's
life.

So at 1:00 am, sporting a wad of cotton and tape on my left index
finger, I helped her sandwich the quilt. First she pulled out a new
blanket and cut a piece to use for the batting using those little
needlework scissors. Then the backing needed to be trimmed to size
too. We laid it all out and although the top wasn't truly flat it
wasn't too bad and would probably quilt up ok. She wanted to bind it
immediately and take it home to quilt it while she baked, so I had to
explain that it wouldn't work out right that way. I convinced her to
baste it with the safety pins she had with her and stitch in the ditch
along the sashing strips then bind it. The heavy pressure of the
presser foot made this hard, but she was happy with it. Then it was
time to bind and we just did the fold the extra backing fabric to the
front, roll it over and sew it down. I would have trimmed a little
more off the backing before folding, but my friend could see light at
the end of the tunnel and she wasn't about to be delayed by something
that could just be folded one more time. It wasn't the best job of
binding I've ever seen but not the worst either. The last seam was
sewn at 2:00 am, at which point she exclaimed she could not have
finished it without my help. My friend swore that she would not be
cross stitching for at least a week and that she's never make another
quilt in her life.

This little quilt looked pretty good considering it was made with
little money, less quilting knowledge, no measuring, and a huge lack
of proper sewing tools. I can only believe that the great amount of
love she put into it made the difference. The quilt was received well
by my friend's niece. My friend made the offer to take the quilt back
home and fix a few flaws, but her niece would not let her take it
away. Oh yes, my friend did make the special Winnie the Pooh cake
for the shower. She saved me a piece. After the shower was over and
the mess cleaned up my friend stayed at her mom's to visit awhile.
She cross stitched on a new project during her visit. And when she
was telling me about the shower that night, she mentioned making
another quilt. A bigger one. I knew she would. I really have to
loan her one of my quilting books so she will know what she is doing
next time.


Debra in VA

You certainly should get the Quilting Purple Heart and Bronze Star!

--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
Queen of Fabric Tramps
http://www.kayneyquilting.com ,
remove the obvious to reply


"Debra" wrote in message
...
I've got a friend who decided to make a cross stitched baby quilt and
she only had a month to do it all. She has never read a quilting
book, or watched anyone else make a quilt, so she was a little
clueless about quilting. But she is the type to jump into a project
with both feet and try her heart out. She made 9 blocks cross
stitched with Winnie the Pooh and friends. She did the stitching on
muslin about the size of men's handkerchiefs using waste canvas and
they were very nice. She stitched every spare moment she could,
including at an out of state business course, and still had to stitch
through one night instead of sleeping just so she would have one day
to get the other supplies she needed for the quilt, and one night to
put it all together. Her plan was to set the nine blocks with sashing
in a straight setting. Simple enough that when she was telling me
about it I thought she knew what she was doing.

After a frantic trip to find some Pooh fabric for the backing and
sashing strips she was all set to start. She cut the sashing strips
and for some unknown reason she made tubes out of the first strip of
sashing. Even her DH knew something was terribly wrong with her plan,
but she shhhed him and continued making her sashing tubes. She turned
the tubes right side out and called me to ask for my iron. She came
to my place to do some ironing. While I did some hand quilting, she
ironed all the blocks then started ironing her sashing. This is when
I looked up and saw the tubes. I asked her why she made tubes while
trying hard not to laugh. She replied that it was part of her plan.
I didn't want to upset her too much so I quietly asked her how she
planned to attach her sashing to the blocks. She said it made perfect
sense to her before she made the tubes, but now that they were sewn
and turned she wasn't so sure about it. So we had a good laugh while
ripping the seams of the tubes, then she started ironing them flat
again. And I realized she didn't know the difference between ironing
and pressing.

I looked at all the parts of this soon to be top, and I don't think
there was any piece that was not stretched out of shape. I taught her
the difference between ironing and pressing. I did some ironing to
square up what I could because it was now 10:30 pm and the shower she
was giving was the next afternoon. She was way beyond the 11th hour
on this project and she had to make the special cake for the shower
after she finished the quilt. I tried to get her to let me help her
put together the top at my place, but she would only sew on her
machine which was currently at her DH's place of work because there
was a big table in the kitchen that she could use, so off we went.

Once there, I asked her to lay out the blocks the way she wanted them
on the quilt. She got that done and I laid the sashing in the correct
places. This was when I noticed the sashing was not the same length
as the blocks. Ok, cut off excess and hand her the first two pieces,
matched up but not pinned because she had no straight pins with her,
and continue until we have three rows of three blocks with the short
sashing. The machine wasn't sewing nice flat seams, but she was just
happy things were getting put together. We fiddled with the tension
several times but the big problem was the presser foot. It did not
come with this machine and I've never seen one like it. Totally flat,
no rise in the front or back. Because this foot didn't come with the
machine I am sure it wasn't supposed to fit but she had put it on
anyway, and the foot was putting too much pressure on the fabric thus
the feed dogs were not working properly. She had not brought her box
of feet with her, so she just ploughed onward.

Once we had all the rows done they needed to be sewn together. The
rows were not straight because all the pieces were not the same size
to start with, but they could have been trimmed to something closer to
straight if we had a pair of shears with a blade longer than one inch.
However she had expected to only need to snip thread, so she didn't
have any shears, only a small pair of needlework scissors. Time for
me to sit at the machine and ignore the material edges and try to make
a straight seam. Did I tell you I had never seen a presser foot like
the one on her machine? For the first time in nearly 20 years of
sewing there was no part of the presser foot rising above the fabric
to warn me to move my finger, and I have no depth perception. My
finger went right over the thin presser foot because it was pressing
the fabric so hard there wasn't any difference in height at all. Yep,
that needle went right through my finger, nail and all. I moved fast
enough that it didn't have time to bleed on the fabric. My friend
calmly stated that I was now a real seamstress because you can't call
yourself that until you have sewn you finger at least once. I bit my
tongue so I would not remind her who was the newbie at sewing. She
finished sewing the top while her DH ran for a first aide kit. I only
needed a bandade but he bandaged my finger to within an inch of it's
life.

So at 1:00 am, sporting a wad of cotton and tape on my left index
finger, I helped her sandwich the quilt. First she pulled out a new
blanket and cut a piece to use for the batting using those little
needlework scissors. Then the backing needed to be trimmed to size
too. We laid it all out and although the top wasn't truly flat it
wasn't too bad and would probably quilt up ok. She wanted to bind it
immediately and take it home to quilt it while she baked, so I had to
explain that it wouldn't work out right that way. I convinced her to
baste it with the safety pins she had with her and stitch in the ditch
along the sashing strips then bind it. The heavy pressure of the
presser foot made this hard, but she was happy with it. Then it was
time to bind and we just did the fold the extra backing fabric to the
front, roll it over and sew it down. I would have trimmed a little
more off the backing before folding, but my friend could see light at
the end of the tunnel and she wasn't about to be delayed by something
that could just be folded one more time. It wasn't the best job of
binding I've ever seen but not the worst either. The last seam was
sewn at 2:00 am, at which point she exclaimed she could not have
finished it without my help. My friend swore that she would not be
cross stitching for at least a week and that she's never make another
quilt in her life.

This little quilt looked pretty good considering it was made with
little money, less quilting knowledge, no measuring, and a huge lack
of proper sewing tools. I can only believe that the great amount of
love she put into it made the difference. The quilt was received well
by my friend's niece. My friend made the offer to take the quilt back
home and fix a few flaws, but her niece would not let her take it
away. Oh yes, my friend did make the special Winnie the Pooh cake
for the shower. She saved me a piece. After the shower was over and
the mess cleaned up my friend stayed at her mom's to visit awhile.
She cross stitched on a new project during her visit. And when she
was telling me about the shower that night, she mentioned making
another quilt. A bigger one. I knew she would. I really have to
loan her one of my quilting books so she will know what she is doing
next time.


Debra in VA

What a wonderful story, Debra. You are a good friend, and probably without
you your friend would not have gotten her quilt done. It doesn't surprise me
that the quilting bug bit her in her trials, I only wish you hadn't gotten
stung by that SM. Yeck!

Anyway, I enjoyed the story and am glad that you didn't leave out one word
of it.

Boca Jan

"Debra" wrote in message
...
I've got a friend who decided to make a cross stitched baby quilt and
she only had a month to do it all. She has never read a quilting
book, or watched anyone else make a quilt, so she was a little
clueless about quilting. But she is the type to jump into a project
with both feet and try her heart out. She made 9 blocks cross
stitched with Winnie the Pooh and friends. She did the stitching on
muslin about the size of men's handkerchiefs using waste canvas and
they were very nice. She stitched every spare moment she could,
including at an out of state business course, and still had to stitch
through one night instead of sleeping just so she would have one day
to get the other supplies she needed for the quilt, and one night to
put it all together. Her plan was to set the nine blocks with sashing
in a straight setting. Simple enough that when she was telling me
about it I thought she knew what she was doing.

After a frantic trip to find some Pooh fabric for the backing and
sashing strips she was all set to start. She cut the sashing strips
and for some unknown reason she made tubes out of the first strip of
sashing. Even her DH knew something was terribly wrong with her plan,
but she shhhed him and continued making her sashing tubes. She turned
the tubes right side out and called me to ask for my iron. She came
to my place to do some ironing. While I did some hand quilting, she
ironed all the blocks then started ironing her sashing. This is when
I looked up and saw the tubes. I asked her why she made tubes while
trying hard not to laugh. She replied that it was part of her plan.
I didn't want to upset her too much so I quietly asked her how she
planned to attach her sashing to the blocks. She said it made perfect
sense to her before she made the tubes, but now that they were sewn
and turned she wasn't so sure about it. So we had a good laugh while
ripping the seams of the tubes, then she started ironing them flat
again. And I realized she didn't know the difference between ironing
and pressing.

I looked at all the parts of this soon to be top, and I don't think
there was any piece that was not stretched out of shape. I taught her
the difference between ironing and pressing. I did some ironing to
square up what I could because it was now 10:30 pm and the shower she
was giving was the next afternoon. She was way beyond the 11th hour
on this project and she had to make the special cake for the shower
after she finished the quilt. I tried to get her to let me help her
put together the top at my place, but she would only sew on her
machine which was currently at her DH's place of work because there
was a big table in the kitchen that she could use, so off we went.

Once there, I asked her to lay out the blocks the way she wanted them
on the quilt. She got that done and I laid the sashing in the correct
places. This was when I noticed the sashing was not the same length
as the blocks. Ok, cut off excess and hand her the first two pieces,
matched up but not pinned because she had no straight pins with her,
and continue until we have three rows of three blocks with the short
sashing. The machine wasn't sewing nice flat seams, but she was just
happy things were getting put together. We fiddled with the tension
several times but the big problem was the presser foot. It did not
come with this machine and I've never seen one like it. Totally flat,
no rise in the front or back. Because this foot didn't come with the
machine I am sure it wasn't supposed to fit but she had put it on
anyway, and the foot was putting too much pressure on the fabric thus
the feed dogs were not working properly. She had not brought her box
of feet with her, so she just ploughed onward.

Once we had all the rows done they needed to be sewn together. The
rows were not straight because all the pieces were not the same size
to start with, but they could have been trimmed to something closer to
straight if we had a pair of shears with a blade longer than one inch.
However she had expected to only need to snip thread, so she didn't
have any shears, only a small pair of needlework scissors. Time for
me to sit at the machine and ignore the material edges and try to make
a straight seam. Did I tell you I had never seen a presser foot like
the one on her machine? For the first time in nearly 20 years of
sewing there was no part of the presser foot rising above the fabric
to warn me to move my finger, and I have no depth perception. My
finger went right over the thin presser foot because it was pressing
the fabric so hard there wasn't any difference in height at all. Yep,
that needle went right through my finger, nail and all. I moved fast
enough that it didn't have time to bleed on the fabric. My friend
calmly stated that I was now a real seamstress because you can't call
yourself that until you have sewn you finger at least once. I bit my
tongue so I would not remind her who was the newbie at sewing. She
finished sewing the top while her DH ran for a first aide kit. I only
needed a bandade but he bandaged my finger to within an inch of it's
life.

So at 1:00 am, sporting a wad of cotton and tape on my left index
finger, I helped her sandwich the quilt. First she pulled out a new
blanket and cut a piece to use for the batting using those little
needlework scissors. Then the backing needed to be trimmed to size
too. We laid it all out and although the top wasn't truly flat it
wasn't too bad and would probably quilt up ok. She wanted to bind it
immediately and take it home to quilt it while she baked, so I had to
explain that it wouldn't work out right that way. I convinced her to
baste it with the safety pins she had with her and stitch in the ditch
along the sashing strips then bind it. The heavy pressure of the
presser foot made this hard, but she was happy with it. Then it was
time to bind and we just did the fold the extra backing fabric to the
front, roll it over and sew it down. I would have trimmed a little
more off the backing before folding, but my friend could see light at
the end of the tunnel and she wasn't about to be delayed by something
that could just be folded one more time. It wasn't the best job of
binding I've ever seen but not the worst either. The last seam was
sewn at 2:00 am, at which point she exclaimed she could not have
finished it without my help. My friend swore that she would not be
cross stitching for at least a week and that she's never make another
quilt in her life.

This little quilt looked pretty good considering it was made with
little money, less quilting knowledge, no measuring, and a huge lack
of proper sewing tools. I can only believe that the great amount of
love she put into it made the difference. The quilt was received well
by my friend's niece. My friend made the offer to take the quilt back
home and fix a few flaws, but her niece would not let her take it
away. Oh yes, my friend did make the special Winnie the Pooh cake
for the shower. She saved me a piece. After the shower was over and
the mess cleaned up my friend stayed at her mom's to visit awhile.
She cross stitched on a new project during her visit. And when she
was telling me about the shower that night, she mentioned making
another quilt. A bigger one. I knew she would. I really have to
loan her one of my quilting books so she will know what she is doing
next time.


Debra in VA

What a story! I admire your perseverance in helping your friend tackle this
project. And thanks for writing the whole story.

"Debra" wrote in message
...
I've got a friend who decided to make a cross stitched baby quilt and
she only had a month to do it all. She has never read a quilting
book, or watched anyone else make a quilt, so she was a little
clueless about quilting. But she is the type to jump into a project
with both feet and try her heart out. She made 9 blocks cross
stitched with Winnie the Pooh and friends. She did the stitching on
muslin about the size of men's handkerchiefs using waste canvas and
they were very nice. She stitched every spare moment she could,
including at an out of state business course, and still had to stitch
through one night instead of sleeping just so she would have one day
to get the other supplies she needed for the quilt, and one night to
put it all together. Her plan was to set the nine blocks with sashing
in a straight setting. Simple enough that when she was telling me
about it I thought she knew what she was doing.

After a frantic trip to find some Pooh fabric for the backing and
sashing strips she was all set to start. She cut the sashing strips
and for some unknown reason she made tubes out of the first strip of
sashing. Even her DH knew something was terribly wrong with her plan,
but she shhhed him and continued making her sashing tubes. She turned
the tubes right side out and called me to ask for my iron. She came
to my place to do some ironing. While I did some hand quilting, she
ironed all the blocks then started ironing her sashing. This is when
I looked up and saw the tubes. I asked her why she made tubes while
trying hard not to laugh. She replied that it was part of her plan.
I didn't want to upset her too much so I quietly asked her how she
planned to attach her sashing to the blocks. She said it made perfect
sense to her before she made the tubes, but now that they were sewn
and turned she wasn't so sure about it. So we had a good laugh while
ripping the seams of the tubes, then she started ironing them flat
again. And I realized she didn't know the difference between ironing
and pressing.

I looked at all the parts of this soon to be top, and I don't think
there was any piece that was not stretched out of shape. I taught her
the difference between ironing and pressing. I did some ironing to
square up what I could because it was now 10:30 pm and the shower she
was giving was the next afternoon. She was way beyond the 11th hour
on this project and she had to make the special cake for the shower
after she finished the quilt. I tried to get her to let me help her
put together the top at my place, but she would only sew on her
machine which was currently at her DH's place of work because there
was a big table in the kitchen that she could use, so off we went.

Once there, I asked her to lay out the blocks the way she wanted them
on the quilt. She got that done and I laid the sashing in the correct
places. This was when I noticed the sashing was not the same length
as the blocks. Ok, cut off excess and hand her the first two pieces,
matched up but not pinned because she had no straight pins with her,
and continue until we have three rows of three blocks with the short
sashing. The machine wasn't sewing nice flat seams, but she was just
happy things were getting put together. We fiddled with the tension
several times but the big problem was the presser foot. It did not
come with this machine and I've never seen one like it. Totally flat,
no rise in the front or back. Because this foot didn't come with the
machine I am sure it wasn't supposed to fit but she had put it on
anyway, and the foot was putting too much pressure on the fabric thus
the feed dogs were not working properly. She had not brought her box
of feet with her, so she just ploughed onward.

Once we had all the rows done they needed to be sewn together. The
rows were not straight because all the pieces were not the same size
to start with, but they could have been trimmed to something closer to
straight if we had a pair of shears with a blade longer than one inch.
However she had expected to only need to snip thread, so she didn't
have any shears, only a small pair of needlework scissors. Time for
me to sit at the machine and ignore the material edges and try to make
a straight seam. Did I tell you I had never seen a presser foot like
the one on her machine? For the first time in nearly 20 years of
sewing there was no part of the presser foot rising above the fabric
to warn me to move my finger, and I have no depth perception. My
finger went right over the thin presser foot because it was pressing
the fabric so hard there wasn't any difference in height at all. Yep,
that needle went right through my finger, nail and all. I moved fast
enough that it didn't have time to bleed on the fabric. My friend
calmly stated that I was now a real seamstress because you can't call
yourself that until you have sewn you finger at least once. I bit my
tongue so I would not remind her who was the newbie at sewing. She
finished sewing the top while her DH ran for a first aide kit. I only
needed a bandade but he bandaged my finger to within an inch of it's
life.

So at 1:00 am, sporting a wad of cotton and tape on my left index
finger, I helped her sandwich the quilt. First she pulled out a new
blanket and cut a piece to use for the batting using those little
needlework scissors. Then the backing needed to be trimmed to size
too. We laid it all out and although the top wasn't truly flat it
wasn't too bad and would probably quilt up ok. She wanted to bind it
immediately and take it home to quilt it while she baked, so I had to
explain that it wouldn't work out right that way. I convinced her to
baste it with the safety pins she had with her and stitch in the ditch
along the sashing strips then bind it. The heavy pressure of the
presser foot made this hard, but she was happy with it. Then it was
time to bind and we just did the fold the extra backing fabric to the
front, roll it over and sew it down. I would have trimmed a little
more off the backing before folding, but my friend could see light at
the end of the tunnel and she wasn't about to be delayed by something
that could just be folded one more time. It wasn't the best job of
binding I've ever seen but not the worst either. The last seam was
sewn at 2:00 am, at which point she exclaimed she could not have
finished it without my help. My friend swore that she would not be
cross stitching for at least a week and that she's never make another
quilt in her life.

This little quilt looked pretty good considering it was made with
little money, less quilting knowledge, no measuring, and a huge lack
of proper sewing tools. I can only believe that the great amount of
love she put into it made the difference. The quilt was received well
by my friend's niece. My friend made the offer to take the quilt back
home and fix a few flaws, but her niece would not let her take it
away. Oh yes, my friend did make the special Winnie the Pooh cake
for the shower. She saved me a piece. After the shower was over and
the mess cleaned up my friend stayed at her mom's to visit awhile.
She cross stitched on a new project during her visit. And when she
was telling me about the shower that night, she mentioned making
another quilt. A bigger one. I knew she would. I really have to
loan her one of my quilting books so she will know what she is doing
next time.


Debra in VA

What an intro to a new addiction! I kept on waiting for you to jump out and
yell April Fool or gotcha at us. Did you tell her that everything else she
does in quilting from now on will never be as hard as this one was?

Dee in LeRoy, NY

"Debra" wrote in message
...
I've got a friend who decided to make a cross stitched baby quilt and
she only had a month to do it all. She has never read a quilting
book, or watched anyone else make a quilt, so she was a little
clueless about quilting. But she is the type to jump into a project
with both feet and try her heart out. She made 9 blocks cross
stitched with Winnie the Pooh and friends. She did the stitching on
muslin about the size of men's handkerchiefs using waste canvas and
they were very nice. She stitched every spare moment she could,
including at an out of state business course, and still had to stitch
through one night instead of sleeping just so she would have one day
to get the other supplies she needed for the quilt, and one night to
put it all together. Her plan was to set the nine blocks with sashing
in a straight setting. Simple enough that when she was telling me
about it I thought she knew what she was doing.

After a frantic trip to find some Pooh fabric for the backing and
sashing strips she was all set to start. She cut the sashing strips
and for some unknown reason she made tubes out of the first strip of
sashing. Even her DH knew something was terribly wrong with her plan,
but she shhhed him and continued making her sashing tubes. She turned
the tubes right side out and called me to ask for my iron. She came
to my place to do some ironing. While I did some hand quilting, she
ironed all the blocks then started ironing her sashing. This is when
I looked up and saw the tubes. I asked her why she made tubes while
trying hard not to laugh. She replied that it was part of her plan.
I didn't want to upset her too much so I quietly asked her how she
planned to attach her sashing to the blocks. She said it made perfect
sense to her before she made the tubes, but now that they were sewn
and turned she wasn't so sure about it. So we had a good laugh while
ripping the seams of the tubes, then she started ironing them flat
again. And I realized she didn't know the difference between ironing
and pressing.

I looked at all the parts of this soon to be top, and I don't think
there was any piece that was not stretched out of shape. I taught her
the difference between ironing and pressing. I did some ironing to
square up what I could because it was now 10:30 pm and the shower she
was giving was the next afternoon. She was way beyond the 11th hour
on this project and she had to make the special cake for the shower
after she finished the quilt. I tried to get her to let me help her
put together the top at my place, but she would only sew on her
machine which was currently at her DH's place of work because there
was a big table in the kitchen that she could use, so off we went.

Once there, I asked her to lay out the blocks the way she wanted them
on the quilt. She got that done and I laid the sashing in the correct
places. This was when I noticed the sashing was not the same length
as the blocks. Ok, cut off excess and hand her the first two pieces,
matched up but not pinned because she had no straight pins with her,
and continue until we have three rows of three blocks with the short
sashing. The machine wasn't sewing nice flat seams, but she was just
happy things were getting put together. We fiddled with the tension
several times but the big problem was the presser foot. It did not
come with this machine and I've never seen one like it. Totally flat,
no rise in the front or back. Because this foot didn't come with the
machine I am sure it wasn't supposed to fit but she had put it on
anyway, and the foot was putting too much pressure on the fabric thus
the feed dogs were not working properly. She had not brought her box
of feet with her, so she just ploughed onward.

Once we had all the rows done they needed to be sewn together. The
rows were not straight because all the pieces were not the same size
to start with, but they could have been trimmed to something closer to
straight if we had a pair of shears with a blade longer than one inch.
However she had expected to only need to snip thread, so she didn't
have any shears, only a small pair of needlework scissors. Time for
me to sit at the machine and ignore the material edges and try to make
a straight seam. Did I tell you I had never seen a presser foot like
the one on her machine? For the first time in nearly 20 years of
sewing there was no part of the presser foot rising above the fabric
to warn me to move my finger, and I have no depth perception. My
finger went right over the thin presser foot because it was pressing
the fabric so hard there wasn't any difference in height at all. Yep,
that needle went right through my finger, nail and all. I moved fast
enough that it didn't have time to bleed on the fabric. My friend
calmly stated that I was now a real seamstress because you can't call
yourself that until you have sewn you finger at least once. I bit my
tongue so I would not remind her who was the newbie at sewing. She
finished sewing the top while her DH ran for a first aide kit. I only
needed a bandade but he bandaged my finger to within an inch of it's
life.

So at 1:00 am, sporting a wad of cotton and tape on my left index
finger, I helped her sandwich the quilt. First she pulled out a new
blanket and cut a piece to use for the batting using those little
needlework scissors. Then the backing needed to be trimmed to size
too. We laid it all out and although the top wasn't truly flat it
wasn't too bad and would probably quilt up ok. She wanted to bind it
immediately and take it home to quilt it while she baked, so I had to
explain that it wouldn't work out right that way. I convinced her to
baste it with the safety pins she had with her and stitch in the ditch
along the sashing strips then bind it. The heavy pressure of the
presser foot made this hard, but she was happy with it. Then it was
time to bind and we just did the fold the extra backing fabric to the
front, roll it over and sew it down. I would have trimmed a little
more off the backing before folding, but my friend could see light at
the end of the tunnel and she wasn't about to be delayed by something
that could just be folded one more time. It wasn't the best job of
binding I've ever seen but not the worst either. The last seam was
sewn at 2:00 am, at which point she exclaimed she could not have
finished it without my help. My friend swore that she would not be
cross stitching for at least a week and that she's never make another
quilt in her life.

This little quilt looked pretty good considering it was made with
little money, less quilting knowledge, no measuring, and a huge lack
of proper sewing tools. I can only believe that the great amount of
love she put into it made the difference. The quilt was received well
by my friend's niece. My friend made the offer to take the quilt back
home and fix a few flaws, but her niece would not let her take it
away. Oh yes, my friend did make the special Winnie the Pooh cake
for the shower. She saved me a piece. After the shower was over and
the mess cleaned up my friend stayed at her mom's to visit awhile.
She cross stitched on a new project during her visit. And when she
was telling me about the shower that night, she mentioned making
another quilt. A bigger one. I knew she would. I really have to
loan her one of my quilting books so she will know what she is doing
next time.


Debra in VA

Wow! I admire her guts, her determination, her humour, and, most of
all, your ability to keep your tongue firmly between your teeth on all
but the things you knew she'd take help with! I could NEVER be that
discreet!

What a saga! Glad it was well received!

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Debra,
Oh my gosh, what a great story! Did your friend get a picture of the quilt?
If so, I would take the story that you wrote here and print it out. Put it
in an album with the picture. On the cover or the first page of the album
write your friend's name, the year, and Quilt Journal. You were able to
share a very exciting time (albeit stressful). A quilter has been born!
I need a big glass- no goblet-of wine after reading this experience!
Congratulations!
Kate

Ah, Debra, that was a great story. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Cindy

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 19:51:23 GMT, "Kathy Applebaum"
wrote:

You certainly should get the Quilting Purple Heart and Bronze Star!

No need for medals, I'm still laughing about the sashing tubes.

Debra in VA

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 16:33:53 -0400, "Boca Jan"
wrote:

What a wonderful story, Debra. You are a good friend, and probably without
you your friend would not have gotten her quilt done. It doesn't surprise me
that the quilting bug bit her in her trials, I only wish you hadn't gotten
stung by that SM. Yeck!

Anyway, I enjoyed the story and am glad that you didn't leave out one word
of it.

Boca Jan

I didn't think it was even possible to sew my finger. Small price to
pay for the many laughs I've had over the sashing tubes. I'm still
laughing at it.
Debra in VA