Quilting the Wheel of Mystery

I had my sister over for a quilting lesson and she said something really funny...

Sister said: "Are you starting something new again"?

I said "Did you think I was going to work on one of my 10 unfinished projects I can see from where I'm sitting?!?!"

Sister said: "I think you should"! Now picture me laughing out loud!

I was all ready to cut into some fabric and start the new paper piecing mystery block at Paper Panache. 

She kept giving me the evil stare, so then I felt guilted into working on a UFO! 

I had been fussing around about my wheel of mystery borders and had been unsure which fabric to pick. Since I finished piecing the quilt top on May 13th (see quilt top here)  I have literally auditioned hundreds of possible border fabrics - both from my stash and at quilt stores.

Today I decided that the problem must be that I don't really want it to have a border, so I went ahead and basted it using one of the fabrics I had bought for a possible border, as the backing. 

And then just jumped into quilting it. I quilted all the curvy seams and then decided to do some other quilting lines - I tried a second line

 right by the seam to emphasize the circles but I hated the look of that. See where my awl is pointing?? That quilting line had to go. 

And I tried quilting about 1/2" away from the seam and hated 

that...look how wavy that line is!!!! 

I must have been distracted by my new project sitting on the edge of the table - calling to me, waiting for me to cut into new fabric!

I like to post photos of these kinds of mistakes because some people think that when you are an experienced quilter, it comes easy and it always works out...not so!! Having experience just means you don't give up and you have a few more ideas or solutions to try.

I kept at it and unsewed a few more quilting lines and finally decided that I prefer the echo curves to be 1/4" away from the seams. Then I had several lines of holes on the batik fabrics where those quilting lines used to be...ugh! With a lot of rubbing of my fingers nails I think (hope) it is not as noticeable now.

As I was leaving the quilt session, I got another idea of quilting lines to make and I'll try that tomorrow. Or maybe I'll work on my new paper pieced block if my sister isn't there to give me the evil stare!!

Poor self control...new project started!

Okay I tried to work on a project from before Paducah (otherwise known as "BP"),  but I could barely remember what I was working on "BP"!!!

I was innocently putting my fabric purchases away and cleaning up my sewing area, and then a strange thing happened...

I started making another Wheel of Mystery quilt! I know, I have poor self control!  But seriously, who could resist opening up these cute little John Flynn pre-cut kits from Paducah?!? Not me!

I was so excited and took out all the little pieces and started to wonder why I had chosen a kit with such small pieces!

Still, it looked like fun. 

It wasn't!

I could not, for the life of me get the centre seams to match up. This is how most of the blocks are looking after unsewing and resewing each block 3 times. I have a "3 times and you're out" policy...after the 3rd time, however it turns out is final!

The other thing I did not like is that when you press these fabrics, there is a strong smell of smoke due to the lazer cut edges...not pleasant. I usually love pressing batik fabrics because of the smell of wax that most batiks have, which I enjoy. So this smokey smell took some getting used to.

Anyway, these blocks are painstaking...each block is taking me about 30 - 40 minutes to sew.

And the pressing of the seams is trickey too. Here is the back of one of the blocks. All seams are split pressed with a swirl in the centre.

I must say that I am delighted that my blocks are laying flat after pressing, because that is a lot of curved seams in a small area, and I was beginning to wonder if they would all turn out like little round cereal bowls with all the handling they have endured!

I will stick with it though because I am anxious to see how this thing will turn out.

Well, that is if I don't get distracted and start sewing something else in the mean time!

Miniature Wheel of Mystery

My miniature "Wheel of Mystery" is finished!
By finished, I mean quilted, bound, and labelled!

It was really fun and I'm going to start at least 2 more variations on the theme. But you know me...that might not mean I actually finish those!
See this post to read about the beginning of the quilt. I appliqued the blocks using a fusible. Then I pin basted the quilt and stitched in the ditch of each seam line using King Tut thread, one of my many thread favorites.

Then I free motion quilted around each appliqued piece. After quilting the first block I noticed a little bit of fraying on the edges which I didn't like, so I put some "Fray Check" around each appliqued piece and let that dry before I quilted them.

For the border quilting, I just extended the curved lines from the blocks out to the edges. I just eye-balled this and it turned out OK, but I was wishing I would have taken the time to draw out the lines and it would be more accurate. Luckily the border is a busy print, and hopefully noone but me will notice that!! The lighting in this photo shows the quilting well but does not show the true colours of the quilt.

Yahoo...another quilt project finished!

Now back to quilting the elephant in the room!!!