Despite my determination to get it finished, I’ve stalled out on my maple leaf quilt Forest Floor. In the last six weeks, I’ve quilted two-and-a-half blocks, and they’re only seven inches square. The quilt has 54 maple leaf blocks, not counting the borders and cornerstones, so there’s a lot more to do.
Because this project is important to me, I am being careful. After I bought a variegated quilting thread for it, I took the time to piece a sample from some of the fabrics in the quilt and test it out. It was time well spent. The thread, which included a green that was too blue, did not work. I had to go back and buy something calmer, a mix of soft browns that fade into the quilt. It’s already so bright and busy, it doesn’t need any more color.
Having finally committed to the thread, I was quilting the first two blocks when my sewing machine stopped working. I had forgotten that big, heavy quilts can pull on your needle, which is how I bent mine. I didn’t realize this is what had happened until I talked with a sewing friend (thanks, Amanda!). Even though I knew what to do, it was weeks before I replaced the needle.
During that time, I admitted to myself that I wasn’t happy with the density of the quilting I had done so far. I added more stitching to the first two blocks and was pleased despite my wonky lines. I started a new block and shortly ran out of bobbin thread.
Changing out a bobbin is a nuisance most of the time, and a real pain when you’re working on a huge quilt. Sliding the quilt out from under the needle to get to the bobbin is a fiddly process, one you have to repeat once the bobbin has been replaced. I couldn’t face it at the time.
That was two weeks ago.
While wrestling with this heavy king-sized quilt is understandably challenging, I need to up my pace a little. I originally hoped to have it finished by September, so I could put it on our bed for the fall. Now I’m just hoping to be done before the year is out.
Considering how hard it is, I’m probably going to have to peck away at it, a few blocks at a time. I could use a schedule. But the most effective thing for me is always a deadline. I’ve embroidered most of the label, and I boldly stitched 2024 as the year the quilt was finished right on it. That gives me a little over nine months, which should be plenty of time.
The trick will be to not procrastinate until December.
How do you motivate yourself when have problems with a large project?
As always I am impressed with your creativity and ambition. The quilt is already so beautiful!
Thank you so much. I really love this quilt because it has blocks made by many of my NY quilting friends. 23 is a long time, though, and I don’ t want it to take another 23! 🙂
That is a big project! I noticed one thing about the examples of stitching in the Yes?No? photo. The top one looks to be variegated thread, while the bottom part seems to use thread of one colour. I love the look of variegated thread on the spool, but when it is used in stitching I’m often disappointed in the change in colour. It often fades out just in the places I don’t want it to change.
There is actually a change in the Yes thread, it’s more noticeable in person. On the quilt it’s going to be really subtle, but I’m okay with that. This quilt is pretty dang wild on its own! As I was gearing up to start this project, I watched lots of videos on machine quilting and many quilters will not use variegated thread because they want their quilting to show and hate that it disappears in places. So they pick something they know will show across the quilt. As you might guess from my quilts, I don’t do solids or just one color because I find it boring. Buying a variegated thread that’s all browns was hard for me! But I’m loving it.