Roadblocks and irritations

I worked quite diligently yesterday. I usually do when a deadline is looming. I’m not one to give up easily. I stayed focused but still took reasonable breaks so I wouldn’t injure myself. My goal was to have both girls quilted and the central flower and leaves, too. I nearly made it. I got all of those things done except the arms, hands, and faces.

I had a few roadblocks. For the first time in a long time, I had fusible webbing that refused to stay stuck. It was some old Wonder Under, but I’ve not had a problem with it in the past. This time, however, the grayish fabric that I used between the girls and below their feet kept popping up around the edges, especially along the edges where I replaced the curvy part that I had cut way. I was concerned about the edges fraying, so I carefully ironed everything again. I paid particular attention to the edges, but there were still problem areas. I resorted to gluing some areas, and then I stitched along some areas with invisible thread.

I finished stitching down all the edges of the gray fabric and thought I would stitch down the GFG. That way I could remove all the pins and basting. But half way through, George began breaking threads. I tried different monofilament threads. I changed the needle. I changed the bobbin. I oiled him again. He refuses to cooperate. I thought I would move on to the skin tones. I like using thin threads on skin tones, so I put in two kinds of silk thread and some BottomLine. The top thread kept breaking. I finally gave him the rest of the night off, and I sat down to plan how I would quilt the GFG blocks.

I’ll put in some regular weight polyester thread this morning and try to quilt the GFG flowers. If George doesn’t play nicely today, he’s going in timeout and I’m going to lavish attention on my Janome. Maybe that will make him jealous, and he’ll decide to be good.