Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Big Secret is Out!!!



Okay, here is the big secret! (giggle) Two weeks ago, I went on an
interview at Seminole Sampler, a local quilt shop in Catonsville, MD. The position I was applying for was a sample maker for the shop. I was a little nervous. I know the owner, Linda, and she is a very nice person. But it was still an interview, therefore, nervous. She liked my pieces of work that I had brought in and noted that they were mostly made of 1800's reproduction
fabrics and she is right! Her shop carries more batiks and gayer
(is that a word?) type fabrics. But the main reason I love her
shop is that it is an appliquer's dream. She carries all sorts
of fabrics that would make great backgrounds.. fabrics that
look like wood, sky fabric....I could go on and on!
I guess she liked my work because the next thing I know
we were discussing which project I would make for her first. We decided on
something small. A tablerunner. It looked cute and I thought it
would be fun to make. She selected a pastel charm pack with a
pastel yellow for backing. Okay. It was cute. A little different for me,
but cute. I was so excited I told her I was going home and starting
on it right away. She gave me two weeks to complete it, I told her I'd have it finished it one.
Oh, I was on cloud nine. That is, until the cloud turned gray. And became a storm cloud. With thunder. And lightning. And heavy, heavy rains. And it lasted for 13 days. Everything was going well on the second day, until I attached the outside border. If you look at the photo you will notice that the outer border is bias, I cut the yellow inside border on the bias ( I was worried if I cut in on the straight of grain I wouldn't have enough for the backing) and the row that the yellow border was attached to was a bias edge. So what do three bias edges spell?
T R O U B L E Yes, trouble. Actually, 3 sides were perfect. It was the 4th, one of the long sides, that chose to torment me. I ignored the minor stretch in the beginning, thinking it will quilt out. HA!!! Quilting it only made it worse:( So I ripped all that out and tried to figure out how to fix it. I ripped out the entire outer border on that side and the yellow inner border. Cut out a new inner border, on the straight of grain this time, and stitched everything back together. Now the fabric was flapping in the breeze, it was so stretched out. It reminded me of the Cat in the Hat book, the more he cleaned the dirtier the house became. Meanwhile, over a week has passed, and the tablerunner is not completed as I told Linda it would be. I sent her an email on Thursday, day 10, and told her I would be there the following Monday, day 14. I didn't want to tell her of my dilemma as I am trying to make a good impression and don't want her to think she has hired a totally incompetent person:( So.....I get the bright idea that on Sunday I will go to the shop and just buy all new fabric and start all over again, a much wiser person. Sounds like a good idea, right? There was a little ray of sunshine beginning to peek out from behind that cloud. Well, what do you think happened??? Of course, they had SOLD OUT of the charms. And, to make matters worse, as I am trying to buy this fabric undercover because I don't want anyone to know I couldn't even make this simple table runner, one of the employees say to me, "Oh, are you getting supplies for that tablerunner for Linda?" Yikes! What should I say? I can't lie? So I just nonchalantly say, "yeah". I confided to one person there my situation and asked her not to tell Linda. Now, what am I going to do? I also remembered that Monday morning I would be spending the entire morning at the dr's office for my knee. I had from 6:30PM Sunday, till 6PM Monday, to fix and finish that runner. Twenty-three and a half hours, minus the 4 hours I would lose at dr's office, gave me a total of 19 and a half hours. And I have to sleep in there somewhere. And maybe eat. Well...eating I could possibly skip. Yes, I was getting desperate!!!! So, on Sunday at 6:30 PM I disappeared to my sewing room. Told hubby he was on his own for dinner and he understood. Plan D was about to go into effect. Plan D was to disassemble the two borders once again, fuse with a lightweight interfacing (thank goodness I am also a garment sewer and had some on hand) and reassemble. I put in a Creed cd, pumped up the volumn, and a ripping I went. After many trials and errors, at 11:30 PM, I had it reassembled and laying flat!!!!!! Whew! Went to sleep as my ride was picking me up at 7AM. Packed a bag with the tablerunner so I could baste down those edges while at the dr's. My plan was, of course, to get that last side quilted, attach binding, and be ready to deliver by 6PM. Sounds good, right? What could go wrong now, right???? Can you even guess at what could possibly go wrong???? When I returned home, a few of my neighbors are sitting on their front porches. "Oh," they say" You may as well stay out here with us". "Why" I asked innocently. (are you ready for this readers???) "BECAUSE THE POWER IS OUT" they said!!!!!!! I almost let out an ear piercing scream. The cloud was back and darker and meaner than ever!!! I think it even contained a tornado!!!!! So I silently said a prayer and asked the Lord to help me. By the time my key opened the door the fan blades were spinning!!! Then I screamed..... Oh, I have power!!!!! I immediately threw off my shoes, and went straight up to my sewing room to finish this quilt before the power went off again. I was holding my breath the whole time. In conclusion I finished the quilt at exactly 6PM. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. I am not quite sure how it happened but while I was quilting the border, somehow, as I was reaching for a stray thread, I actually stitched halfway through my middle finger through the nail. Thank goodness I wear those Machingers, (gloves) so most of the blood was absorbed by the gloves. Ladies, this is very painful and I recommend that you never do this to yourself!!!:)
In the photo you see the finished tablerunner, Linda loved it, and now I will be making a crib size quilt for her. I am back on cloud nine!!!!

2 comments:

  1. Bless your heart! I know you must have been stressed over this table runner. I'm sure if you had told her your issues she would have understood. But I probably would have been the same way and kept quiet and tried my best. Your table runner is gorgeous! I love the colors! Congrats on your new job and I can't wait to see the crib quilt!

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  2. The table runner is beautiful! And I would have done exactly what you did!!!

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