The Quilt That Frayed My Nerves

Finishing a quilt always leaves me with mixed feelings: I’m happy to have finished something, but I’m not sure what to do next.

The Sand Castles blocks I won in the Thimble & Thread Quilt Guild‘s optional block drawing last summer inspired me to make a few more blocks and put the quilt together quickly – perhaps too quickly.

The trouble began with the outer border. Because pink is not my favorite color, I didn’t have that much pink fabric in my stash. I had bought a rose print for the alternating blocks in the diagonally set quilt, but I had just enough for that. Besides, too many roses can be too much of a good thing.

I did, however, have an unusual print of interlocking hands that included the right shade of pink, plus some purple and other shades, and a quick assessment told me there was about the right amount of fabric for a border. However, as I measured the quilt, I decided the border needed to be a bit wider than I first planned. And that’s where the trouble came in. As I got to the last side of the quilt, it appeared that I was a few inches short. I had to piece the border in three places, even adding a small triangle to cover the inner corner.

Then, I began quilting with a spool of So Fine by Superior, a really thin polyester thread that I had used successfully in some other quilts. It would sew fine for a while, but then the thread would fray and break. I took the machine in for a check, but the mechanic apparently didn’t understand my problem and I had to take it back in.

He smoothed out a place on the foot that I thought was fraying the thread and took another look at the hook. He seemed to think the problem had to do with using too small a needle for the machine.

I bought some bigger needles, came home and the machine sewed fine for a while, but the fraying began again. It was slow going, and I put the quilt aside during the holidays. After New Year’s, I was determined to get it done.

Over the last week, I’ve done a lot of cursing as the thread frayed over and over again. I could find no obvious place on the machine that was abrading the thread. And unfortunately, I quilted in some folds of fabric on the back. But I was determined to finish this quilt and get it out of my life.

Finally, last night, I finished quilting the last border and applied the binding. Voila, it’s done! And I am so relieved.

As for the next project, I am going to make some blocks for Thimble & Thread Quilt Guild’s next charity project and go through some fabric bins to find fabric that can be used to back the quilt tops donated by Karel Owens. I encourage other members of my guild to do the same.