Wednesday, October 12, 2011

FINISHING DIFFICULTIES

Well.....what a surprise I had in store for me as work continued on this little piece....still unnamed.  It's usually easy for me to name designs, but so far this one eludes me.


Anyway.....I had planned to hand quilt the background but absolutely couldn't get a needle through many of the rusted areas.  Finally, I gave up and took it to the machine.  Well, slap me on the head.....even a jeans needle wouldn't penetrate some of these areas, making me afraid I'd ruin my machine if I forced it.  I gave that up and only stitched in the ditch between the two borders. 

The next problem arose when I tried to machine sew the binding on. Seriously, even using just one layer of binding material, there were areas where the needle would not pass through.  NOT good!  I even tried some traditional cotton fabric for the binding and that didn't work either.

The answer....was a surprise.....  I was able to hand sew the binding using a very sharp/strong quilting between.  Ya never know what will work.




All along I planned on using a continuous picot seed bead edging treatment along the fold of the binding.  I was stunned that my first choice of beads didn't work well.....and further surprised that none of my other 3 choices worked either.  Neither the colors nor the shape of the bead, framed the quilt like I imagined.  What's a gal to do?  I'm working on that and hope to find the answer today!

3 comments:

Vicky F said...

How about "Eye of Newt"?

Ulrike said...

I know, a bit late. But when I sew thick materials or many seemingly impenetrable layers, I use a leather needle. It has a trangular point and is sharpened. They are available for machine and hand sewing.

Right now I sew a bag with layers: (deco velvet + old bedsheet cotton + bourette silk)x2 The only needle that gets through these layers is a leather needle ;o)

The Inside Stori said...

Thank you Ulrike......I'll definitely keep that in mind....aren't we all so lucky to be in this great community of sewers who are willing to share helpful hints!! It's much appreciated....