If there is a season for malfunction, I must be in it. I did finish my little 12″ square piece, “Jewel Box”, but not without trauma.
I reached the point where I had finished the front, added backing, quilted it lightly, turned it for a clean-edge finish and had almost finished hand sewing the understitching. In the process I had poked myself with a needle, which left a bit of blood on the quilt. So I wet it to take out the blood.
By now it was bedtime so I took it with me to fondle and admire in the moments before sleep-I really liked this piece!
And there, right before my eyes, slowly, the top threads began to come loose on their own. It was like a plant in bloom, releasing thread in this organic evolving process! What the heck?
Of course the only answer was that somehow I had accidentally put water soluble thread in the bobbin-that was the only logical answer. Yet I KNEW that could not be it because I’m always careful to put any bobbin with water soluble thread back into its own special baggie to protect it and make sure it is not integrated in with my other bobbins. I know better than that!
It wasn’t long before it was evident that I had indeed used water soluble thread in the bobbin for about a quarter of the quilt, involving many different design elements and threads. Ugh.
In order to fix my goof, I had to: unpick my quilting, remove the back (I had already trimmed my corners!), remove and identify all areas with problems, re-quilt the problem areas with many needle and thread changes, try to fit the new motifs into the same space the old ones were in, re-quilt the back, re-sew the backing and hand understitch the edges. Easy, peasy right?
At least turning the quilt was easy: I fused lightweight knit interfacing to the underside of the back and slit it for easy turning. I eventually hand sewed the edges together, with the joining hidden by the hanging sleeve.
Whew-here we are labeled and sleeved, ready to block. I hope this season of malfunction ends soon!
Might be time for someone to market special bobbins for water soluable threads. Now that you have identified the bobbin, maybe you could mark it with a dot of paint or nail polish – or if it is plastic you coul even use a sharpie?
Oh Carol, the funny thing is that I DO separate it from the rest of the bobbins-I just violated my own rule! You’re right though, apparently I need TWO reminders and a sharpie on the bobbin-I’m doing that NOW!!
I am amazed at the silly things we “experienced” quilters are capable of! At least your lovely piece was fixable with a lot of extra effort. In retrospect, aren’t you glad you got blood on it now so you could fix the problem before it was on it’s way to a show!
Oh I am SO thankful I got blood on it! Just imagine how bizarre that would have been if it happened say, 6 months from now.
I forgot to say that it is beautiful! And next time you bleed on a piece, just a bit of your own saliva will take it out. Heard that many years ago and it works. Won’t work in someone else’s blood, though. Don’t understand the ‘why’ but it has to do with your own body’s chemistry…
I actually did use my own saliva and the stain was big enough that I needed more moisture. That ‘s a good thing-otherwise I would not have discovered my problem!
Oh no, I think I would have cried and given up. Thanks to your perseverance, It is a beautiful piece.
Thank you Lula. Really, I felt like had no choice-I had put too much time into it to walk away
A tough lesson. Your work is so impressive to me as a non quilter. I hope those who see the piece will appreciate what it takes to display this level of perfection. A lesser person would have given it up as a message from the universe to let it go. Not our Jenny! Thank you for another revealing tale of perserverance.
Thank you Marcia! I really could not let this one go-too much work into it already.
Whoa! Happens to the best of us, doesn’t it! Congratulations on the patience and perseverance to re-craft the piece, which is indeed wonderful. :-)
YES-it does happen to all of us! Thank you for your kind comments Margaret.
Loved your story. Glad to hear that these things can happen to you, one of the most organized people I’ve ever met. Have to say, your work is so incredible. I am so impressed with you and your work.
Thank you Bobbi-it’s a real forehead slapper! I did lose a night’s sleep over it though….
It’s really beautiful, glad you didn’t give up on it! We’ve all done stuff like that….
Thank you Roxane-I just wish I could do stuff like this a little less often!
Gorgeous! Worth the tribulation.I can’t wait to see it up close and personal. And thanks for the reminder about storing things appropriately so this won’t happen to me.
Thank you Franki! I did store it properly–except the one time I didn’t. I like Carol’s idea (previous comment) about marking the actual bobbin, which I did right after I read her comment!
Greatly impressed! And not just with the work itself, but more so by your tenacity!
Thank you Laura. Tenacity can carry you a long ways sometimes!
Oh, NO!!! I would have been in tears. This is like a writing prompt that my fourth grader was assigned recently: “Imagine that you are doing your homework, and every word disappears as soon as you write it down. What do you do?” Except that you had completely finished the piece when it began to dissolve. You know what else this is like? The rain washing away Burt’s chalk drawings in Mary Poppins — except that they got to play in the park before it was washed away by the rain. I’m impressed that you got right back at it and requilted it so quickly. I would have needed an hour-long tantrum, a good night’s sleep, and a day or two of sulking and feeling sorry for myself if that happened to me!
How funny-you’re right, just like your 4th grader’s writing prompt!! And Burt and Mary Poppins-oh I remember that scene very well. I did lose a night’s sleep over it but I had invested too much to not finish it at that point.
I couldn’t have put that better if I tried!! Sulking is highly underrated!
Yes, sulking can be very effective indeed!!
Acckkk! Your poor thing! I’m impressed that you didn’t have what would have been my reaction – fling it into the garbage can – but painstakingly reconstituted it. I hope that you didn’t have to redo any of those beads. You get my nomination for the Make Sure This Doesn’t Happen To You award. I also admire your courage in sharing your mistakes.
Oh I would be up for the Make Sure This Doesn’t Happen To You award many times! Love that though-and DO make sure you don’t ever do that.
It’s so beautiful but what a story! It had to be shocking to watch the stitching come out.
It was true disbelief. I knew immediately it could only be one thing but it didn’t make sense to me that I would ever put water soluble thread in the bobbin for normal work!
Thanks for warning us!! Now, what does that baggie look like?
I must not know what it looks like! Seriously, how hard can this be? I like Carol’s idea (above) and I’ve already marked the bobbin with a Sharpie so hopefully I will not go through this again.
Wow, what a story. So glad that you were able to fix it. It is a beautiful piece.
Thank you Cyndi-it was worth it in the long run!
That piece is exquisite! An heirloom quilting! I have never even attempted such a complicated design!! Well done…..and re-done!! Blessings, Doreen
I used to doodle those paisley designs as a little girl-guess it’s coming back!
A lot of the designs I find myself doing were ones that I doodled in elem./high school, also!!!! Interesting!!
OMG, I don’t think I could have handled it so calmly! The piece is gorgeous, and I probably would have put it away for a year or so before I could look at it again!
I HAD to finish it after all those hours! Thank you for your kind words.
So beautiful! At least you had not made yourself a swimsuit with that bobbin!
I doubled over with laughter on that one!! Yes indeed, no swimsuits with water soluble in the bobbin!!
(^^$%#&@&^T*&&%(*^(&^#@%^& and then some! Just in case you didn’t cuss enough. And what a recovery! Hope your season of malfunction is over now!
You did a great job at that Kathy!! I sure hope my malfunctions are taking a rest for awhile.
Ohh!!! What a gut-wrenching moment that must have been. This is an amazingly gorgeous piece and you get Uber-Kudos for reworking it!!
Thank you Lynette! I really do try to remember that “it’s just fabric and thread”.