The Day

I’m calling it the day on the Whatever quilt. I think. Although I am enjoying the mixed media quilting journey very much, I find it hard to decide when I have reached my destination. It’s all about finding balance, only adding what will improve the quilt, connecting all the elements and making it into a whole. Sounds easy, but it’s not.

I got working on that last layer yesterday, all the pent up frustration from the past 3 weeks just waiting to be stitched out, anxious to see how my new and somewhat fever induced plan would work out. Well, it didn’t. The first attempt at creating little hints of vegetation crashed and burned, and so did the second.

 The huge spool of raspberry t-shirt-yarn that I had envisioned being perfectly transferred into beautiful straws was way too chunky against all the delicate sheer fabrics and simply had to go. That’s all right, I am sure I will find a use for it later, and also the rest of the raspberry stuff that did not make the cut this time.

The third attempt, however, was successful, and soon after eagerly stitched onto the quilt.

Then it was button time, and the plan of adding lots and lots of buttons was adjusted to adding just lots of buttons. To keep the button arrangement seemingly random, I spread them out on the quilt and used glass head pins to keep them in place while hand stitching them onto the quilt.

By the end of the day my fingers were really sore. Pulling pearl cotton floss through layers and layers of heavily quilted fabrics does that to you.

The rubber needle-pulling-thingie wasn’t in my hand sewing kit, so I went looking for a balloon in the kitchen junk drawer. There were no balloons, but I found a roll of band aid. It worked like a charm, just fold it around the needle, and your grip will be so much better. I wish I had thought about it sooner, before my fingers got so sore.

Now it’s time to hand stitch the hanging sleeve and label to the back of the quilt. I just need to make really, really sure, yet again, that it’s finished as adding anything afterwards will be difficult.

Thanks for stopping by!