Quilt Pink

[celticdragonfly]

Today is the day that a lot of quilt stores are participating in the Quilt Pink event - making blocks that will become quilts that will be auctioned off for the Komen foundation and breast cancer research. I'd seen an article about it in a local newspaper flyer, talking about the Azle quilt store doing it. So today I went out there to give it a try, with some of the handquilting stuff I'd just gotten in a little bag. I was pretty intimidated about going.

I found the place just fine, and sorta felt oddly out of place at first, but they were pretty welcoming. They were all machine oriented, but said sure, I could hand-do it. They gave me a kit for a block, the windblown pattern. Lots of triangles, oh cool, I got to find out how you do the seam allowance sizing for triangles, which I'd been trying to figure out. A kind lady loaned me her 7/8th marked ruler, oh I so want one of those. The kit had white fabric with white vines pattern, and a pink that had a grid pattern on it, but wavy lines - I could tell that was going to drive me nuts, so went into the pile of donated fabrics and got some pink with white polkadots instead.

(OMG the PINK everywhere! Pink fabrics, pink blocks, pink quilts, all these ladies wearing pink shirts. I kept thinking of Maggie. She would have LOVED it.)

I started hand-piecing a few, and was watching them machine piecing, and was tempted to try. One lady had said I was welcome to use her machine. I had told them how I have problems with sewing machines. I swear, they just don't like me. It used to go better. When I had bkseiver's really old machine, the one she got to make maternity clothes before I was born, I could mostly get it to sew. And the old antique one Jeff and I found out in California, with the bullet-shaped bobbinholder, that worked okay for me. But anything newer than 1970 seems to be risky. Totally failing to get kattelyn's machine to thread recently really demoralized me. I'm getting twitchier around them. But I decided to go ahead and try. The lady had it set up for me - she did have to show me that you just push a button for it to cut the thread, oops, I didn't know that. And it was just supposed to sew straight lines, how bad could it be? Yeek, it kept dethreading itself every couple of seams, or jumbling up on the back. I wasn't changing anything! They just don't like me. At one point it had me breaking down in tears, that I was going to have to go find the lady again and say it was messed up again. I went off to the bathroom for a few minutes, then went to find her. After that it settled down, and I was able to keep working.

I did eventually get it finished. My first quilt block. I figured it wasn't that good, and I was saying yeah, I figured they'd politely wait until I was gone and put it in the scrap bin... they realized it was my first block and got excited, insisted they would not scrap it, helped me iron it and took a picture of me with it. We all got little pink ribbon pins.

I'm slow, but at least I did something. Other ladies were apparently bringing in PILES of blocks, or in some cases multiple quilts. Wow.

I signed up for their mailing list. There should be a new class list out soon. I saw a neat trick - they had those cheap felt-backed tablecloths you can get at a dollar store (they said) tacked up on the wall, bottom side out, and were using them as a block-arranging area - just press the blocks up there and they mostly stayed up. Of course, this requires an unoccupied wall, but still a cool trick.

I will admit, they're kinda seducing me towards the dark side on the idea of machine piecing. I still want to do a lot of hand piecing - because I can do that on the road, on the couch with the kids, etc. But the machine piecing was kinda cool, too. I find myself wondering if I can manage to convince bkseiver, when she brings the fancy sewing machine in November, to JUST set it up to do straight lines, and show me how to thread it, and NOT try to teach me anything more complicated - because it's just going to get me in trouble and end up with a machine that's not working for me and a disaster. Frankly, even that might end up with a machine that doesn't work for me, but it's tempting, if I could just get a machine that would reliably sew a straight line for me...

On the way home I was struck by a design idea for a twin-size quilt for Maggie. We'll see. I need to do my first one first!

Comments

[jenna-thorn.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to pressure you into a machine, and quite honestly, my sewing machine is smarter than I am. It and I agreed that and Himself concurs. But have you considered an old machine. And by old I mean treadle? We've found functioning treadles for twenty bucks in out of the way antique places and when Betsy (1940-ish converted to motor in the 60's) spazzed out on me, did a couple of projects on Elspeth, circa 1880-90. Our standing joke was that she and the abacus were our Y2K plan.

I agree that hand pieceing mets family time criteria, but a treadle, with its slower, manually controlled pace and minimal extraneous functions, might be less intimidating and I've found that older machines are more forgiving. My new fangled monster caterpillars if you look at her cross eyed, and gets twitchy at the drop of a pin. Betsy, on the other hand, has cheerfully accepted everything from bridal silk to thin leather. She did choke on eight layers of canvas, but then, so would anyone and my new machine would take one look at it and resign in disgust.

We don't do as much exploring now that there are three of us rather than just two, but I can keep an eye out for you. I don't know that you and Selenite would be able to spot a diamond in the rough, and buying a restored / refinished / warrentied working one can get pricey. Plus most of the decorators don't want working; they just want pretty, so they'll pull hinges and remove parts that might snag on Martha by mail linens, but are need to make it actually sew. (My biases are showing. Oh well.)

Anyway, just something to think about.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I have never used a treadle. But I'd give it a try. I enjoy the player piano after all.

I actually do technically have a sewing machine right now - an older table model given to me back in California after Mom's old one died - but I can't get it to work. By which I mean I can't even get it to stay up when I unfold it from under the table. So I've never even gotten as far as threading it, and I want someone to come take it away, anyone who wants it can have it.

But yes, a really old treadle sounds possibly interesting. I'd have no CLUE how to recognize a good one, and I'd probably need to be taught how to use and thread it. Sure, if you see one, let me know. Want my cell #?

I am hoping Mom can make her machine work for me... but yes, the new ones can do amazing things if you're good, but seem so sensitive if you're not. The serger she gave me, sigh, nope.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

One of Brenda Sutton's machines that I used on the GaFilk project (i forget which year) had a stitch-speed control. So no matter how hard you pressed on the foot pedal, it still stitched the same speed.

I was jealous.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

... but I like going fast... that's the tempting thing about sewing machines to me.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

But sometimes they take off in JATO mode, when you really want to be in granny. This leads to much picking-out of stitching that wound up in the wrong place.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Actually I suppose the question is what ballpark amount do these tend to be? There's not much wiggle room in the budget these days.

[jenna-thorn.livejournal.com]

I've seen rescue machines with working mechanics but a case in need of a lot of love and a little Howard's Miracle Oil for as little as twenty bucks in auctions or the backwater spots. I can't promise anything immediately, but it's something to keep in mind. I don't know whether you get out to local auctions, or if you are far enough out of the city to have them actaully be local, but you might keep an eye out for a lucky find.

Oh, can it sew straight lines!

[bkseiver.livejournal.com]

It's like the difference between a meezer and an alley cat! Straight lines par excellance, bobbin side looks as good as the top, and well trained to "heel" at your command. You'll be so happy! I'll even show you the way to tap a button twice, like double-clicking on an icon, and get it to sew "just one more stitch", if that's what you need to finish a seam. Happy, happy.

Re: Oh, can it sew straight lines!

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Meezers are amazing, yes. But I've never met a meezer that would "heel" at my command! (Max would - but he was a plain old red tabby.) My concern is that, like a meezer, it might be absolutely amazing, and absolutely not do anything I wanted it to.

Your first block!

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

That's right up there with having Leslie Fish ask for a copy of your first-ever filk lyric!

Re: Your first block!

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Well, it wasn't a very good block. The points weren't great.

I was wishing I'd thought to bring our camera, though.

Speed control

[bkseiver.livejournal.com]

Yup, your machine will have that, too. Whether you are using the peddle or just the "stop start" button, you have a speed control. I sewed at dead slow for several years.

Re: Speed control

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

... but I like going fast... that's the tempting thing about sewing machines to me.

Re: Speed control

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

There's a definite learning curve to keeping an eye on where the needle is headed-for, and being able to control the speed it gets there at is almost worth buying myself a new machine, if I had the money.

Trust me: you'll work your way up to Overdrive, but the crashes are a lot less thrilling in Low.