Tuesday, October 13, 2009

October Step

I spent Saturday quilting my October Step. By the end of the day, all I had left was the outer border. Since I've been in a feathery mood, it seemed right to add more. I did so on Monday. I proclaimed the Step "finished!" and then actually looked at it. oh my. It waves like a flag in the wind.

Just in case you can't see the ripples full on, how about an edge shot?

See them now?

I have some dense quilting in the foreground of the interior picture, which "sucks up" the fabric. It needs equally dense quilting around the border, to "suck up" the excess in a similar manner. sigh. I didn't want to quilt any more. But I did.

I've gone back and added itty bitty teensy weensy microscopic stippling on both sides of the feather. It helped a lot, although I'm not sure this photo shows how much difference it made. (Maybe you can click on it then zoom in?)

The (hopefully) finally step to making this quilt lie flat was to cut off the excess and then block the border. Since the interior is fine the way it is, I didn't mess with it at all. The last thing I want is for it to shrink. But the border is another matter. Because I have 100% cotton batting, I EXPECT it to shrink, at least enough to make the quilt look flat.

Here it is, pinned and drying.

And here it is once again from the edge. It looks promising, does it not?


I'm hoping to get the binding attached so that I will have handwork on Thursday, when my Itty Bitty friends congregate. It's been weeks (months?) since I've met with them, so I really do need to make an effort.

But for now? I have another quilt-for-hire in my future on this rainy day...

2 comments:

Nina Marie said...

First of all congrats on finishing a step - secondly - I've blocked out many a ripple and I can always get it to work. What I do is pin it down to my commercial grade carpet in the proper square - then take my rowenta and a damp cloth and steam and press the whole thing into the shape I need it to be. Let it dry and - presto - its flat! Like I tell my husband - its fabric - not wood -it moves!

Vicki W said...

It's really beautiful!