Project Simplify - Day 19
May 18, 2011 And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging. :)
Remember this sweet, innocent-looking spool of lilac variegated RAYON thread?
Yeah. It's evil. But I'll get back to that in a minute.
I decided that after my poor "daisy flower" FMQ results I should stick to what I know for now - which is the "swirly twirly". Fine.
But things were not going well. I'd only done about 5 minutes worth of stitching and the thread broke, like, at least 20 times! I rethreaded, checked the tension, everything I could think of to fix the problem. I was having a serious hate-on for the thread. But when I started testing out different thread I discovered that the lilac rayon was only half the problem. The other half? Well, turns out you really do need A DARNING FOOT on your machine to do FMQing. The open-toed applique foot won't work. (Oops!)
When I finally clued in to THAT little oversight, my darning foot decided to punish me for ignoring it by falling off and breaking (another) needle.
Sigh. So by this time there were so many stops & starts in my top-stitching I figured I should prob'ly take it all out. I hate unpicking almost as much as I hate practicing.
But ...
Guess who discovered that the little helper girl L.O.V.E.S using a stitch ripper? (This photo was her idea.)
She was all over that job! Especially after I showed her how to cut every third or fourth thread and then after a few minutes do that oh-so-satisfying long thread pull. :) drrrdrrrdrrrdrrrdrrr!
I sent her off to her Grandmas with the quilt and the ripper and she happily undid my mess.
Then I showed her my secret weapon for removing all those annoying little bits of thread ... masking tape.
If you've ever had body hair waxed ... you get the picture ;)
I love this girl. Who knew 24 hours of labour followed by a C-section would pay off this way?
Fabric, Project Simplify, Quilting 
Reader Comments (6)
Free, willing child labor - never turn it down! Hope everything falls back in place once you get started again.
HAHAHAHA!!!! I don't know what else to say, I can't stop laughing.
blessings, jilly
I like the tape tip. What needle are using Topstitch 90/14 works well for most threads.
Can she come to my house, please???? I'd even pay the sweetheart!! My kids would have given me an "eyeroll" of epic proportions and a "get real, mom"!
What a little sweetie she is. Maybe one of your projects will be for her. I think children are worth any amount of labour. Given to us by Our Heavenly Father to teach us how we are to Him. Thank you for a great post. A Grandma
That is what every quilter needs! Have you tried a supreme slider on your sewing machine? It really helped my free motion quilting...somehow it just glides better and my stitching looks better too!