Monday 21 June 2010

Wrestling a Tunisian Door

This weekend was spent quilting, binding and labelling my 'Tunisian Door' quilt for 'Under African Skies' exhibition at the Quilt Museum in York. Finally finished and posted off!!
It's quite large (106 x 140 cm) and involves some quite hefty damask fabrics , including the backing and I was thinking as I wrestled it under the machine about somebody's comment about 'quilting must be so relaxing'. Challenging and rewarding, yes, but my aching arms don't think it's relaxing!!
As the trimmings testify, it turned out to be rather recalcitrant when it came to measuring and cutting down to size. I used Ian's large dining table and thought I had it tamed only to spend another hour taking more and more slithers off to make the edges line up. Even then , once I'd put the facings on , I found it had wobbly edges that needed rectifying and spend another hour 'unsewing' . I'd forgotten what beasts improvised quilts can be compared to well behaved painted ones ( the acrylic stiffens the fabric which makes for firm edges)
Time to cart my polystyrene design wall down to the conservatory for taking some photos. At least the weather gods were with me - bright but overcast.

6 comments:

Sandra Wyman said...

Look forward to seeing it in the flesh!

The WestCountryBuddha said...

Wow! It's looking truly fabulous Mags. It was definitely worth all that hard work!

jan said...

It looks fantastic!

Julie said...

It's wonderful! I shall have to go and see it! Congratulations on a beautiful piece.

JP said...

great work - it looks fantastic

Margaret Cooter said...

Great idea, too, about having the original photo as the label.