Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Murphy's Law

Good afternoon!  It has been such a long time since I have had a chance to share with you.  Do you ever have a project that almost everything goes wrong?  I call it "Murphy's Law"!  My latest finish was one.  I belong to a wonderful group on FB called "Sew Swapit".  It is a group of fabulous quilters that sign up to "swap" projects with one another.  I love getting the little surprises in the mail from my swap partner!  It's better than Christmas!

The latest swap was a Fall themed swap.  I decided to use the disappearing 9-patch block from an earlier tutorial in my swap.  The fabric I chose reminded me of all the beautiful foliage I remember when I was growing up in NW Pennsylvania.


I decided to make 2 additional blocks and make a table runner.  Easy, right?  Well I thought so.  Enter Murphy.  I allowed plenty of time to make the table runner.  Then a few other deadlines snuck in.  Such is life.  Then, WHAMMY!  I was bending over, trying to add basting pins, and I threw out my back.  No sewing for me.  Ouch!

I went to the doctor, and rested my back.  I was so worried I wouldn't have my swap ready in time.  After about 4 days my back started feeling better.  Time to quilt.  I decided to give my table runner a little modern flair while practicing my FMQ (free motion quilting).  What do you think?  Is it too much?


I chose a different FMQ patterns for each section.  All the large squares had a meander pattern, the small squares a concentric square, etc.  I began quilting, when Murphy struck again.  I turned the runner over, to check my stitches, and lo and behold there was a huge fold in the backing fabric!  Ugh!  Time for the seam ripper.  I really like all the quilting, but it took such a long time.

Finally, I was ready to bind the runner.  I decided to try the easy binding method.  I trimmed the batting and folded the backing fabric to the front to make the binding.  I should have known that anything that said it was "easy", was too good to be true.  Good ole Murphy again!  As I was trimming, I accidentally sliced a small hole in the binding.  I had to decide if I wanted to cut it off and add a traditional binding, or try to patch it.  Luckily I could patch it.  Whew!  What an ordeal!  I hope my swap pattern likes it.  Maybe if I send her a lot of chocolate she will forgive me.  ; )


Thanks for letting me share my story.  Please leave me a comment.  I would love to hear your stories!

Have a crafty adventure today!
Anni

4 comments:

  1. Oh, this so my latest quilt! Every. Single. Thing. I wouldn't be so stressed if it wasn't for a client. I didn't throw my back out, but I did get sick and was down for a week. You're not alone!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tammy, so sorry your dealing with the stress too. I think someone was trying to tell me to slow down. Hope you feel better!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Even with the issues you encountered it sure came out beautiful. You are amazing with needle and thread...Murphy or not. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful job even when Murphy's law steps in! Sometimes they work out better!

    ReplyDelete