Pucker Up

I’m in the midst of quilting the nine-patch quilt, and I’m doing it just like in the inspiration photo: a rough quarter inch on either side of EVERY block.  I like the way it looks and I think it’s really appropriate to the design, but good lord is it slow, tedious, and mind-numbing.

And it has given me plenty of time to ponder what went wrong.

I’m having a LOT of puckering and distortion with this quilt, and while I’d like to claim to have a malfuctioning walking foot, I don’t think that’s the case. No, I think there are several things that I could have done better.

1. Sloppy Sashing.  I think I was somewhat careless in the way I put together the quilt top with the sashing. I think I could have been a lot more careful and done a LOT more pressing.  Instead, I think I was left with a not-that-flat quilt top and some bunching and excess fabric especially with the sashing.  I was piecing something new the other day and already tried to be more conscientious (and not in such a hurry) with pressing before and after adding long strips of sashing.
2. Hasty Basting. I probably could have made the backing a bit more taut when I taped it to the floor.  I definitely could have been more careful in smoothing out the quilt top.  And I could have used a lot more pins.  I was in such a hurry, I wasn’t yet done quilting the ORBCo quilt when I basted this one, so I didn’t have as many pins at my disposal as I could have if I’d waited.

It’s not tragic, it’s not completely ruined. I still rather like the quilt as a whole, even if it’s a bit, well, sloppy.  Clearly, my rush to get things done is catching up with me on this one.  Duly noted, there are consequences for trying to get things done too fast.

Now, how many things am I trying to get done in the next two weeks?  Ha!