Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Obstacles

I should have gotten so much done on the Labor Day weekend. After running errands all Saturday I got home and discovered my boiler was out...no hot water or heat. I didn't really need the heat but no hot water for three days was not fun. My plumber was out of town fishing in Homer. We've had non-stop rain for 40 days and 40 nights...at least it feels that way. Great quilting weather. I loaded a small quilt on my frame and got started. Half way through the top I started having trouble with loops on the back...ARGH!


From my experience this is usually the result of an oddity in threading process...but after a day and a half of tinkering I can't find the culprit. Meanwhile I will rip out the offending areas and try again.

All of the backing fabrics I ordered came in on Tuesday. I'm thrilled with all of them. First, a Tonga batik, Beluga Blue from Fabric.com, to go with my Blue Reveille quilt.


Then a backing from Sew Batik, a company out of North Dakota. I have seen their booth every time 
I've visit a national quilt show. Their batik backing has a looser weave than a traditional batik. I have used their backings before and been happy with them. This is a lovely dust rose color called Hyde Park.


And finally, I am trying one of the new Hoffman 1895 backings, New Grape. I got mine from one of my favorite internet shops, Batiks Plus. They always have goodies to add to my order. A free batik fat quarter, a free quilt pattern and an 18-page printed photo sample of all the 1895 Hoffman batiks. Wow! Love getting such fun surprises with my order.


I just finished washing all of the backings and wanted to show the color-catchers that came out with them. I washed the purple twice...lots of bleeding!


Here's the front side the quilt that started out great...hopefully I will get this threading/tension issue resolved soon. Thank goodness it is just a little throw quilt.


2 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

sorry you have a bit to pick out from that quilt with the loops on the back - no fun at all!! hope you can get the machine figured out so you can use those other backs that you go. I have ordered from one of them and pleased.
hope the hot water problem got fixed!

Cathy said...

The only good thing about having to pick out tension issues like that, is that the tension is so loose, the threads are easy to pull out.