Monday, May 13, 2013

Monkey Quilt DONE..despite all the obstacles!

The Five Little Monkeys Quilt is finally quilted, complete with the binding on!  It’s cute and I really like it…it was fast and very easy to make but two problems cropped up that I didn’t foresee!  Certainly not the pattern’s fault…more like the sewer’s!:o} This is a Patchwork Pottery Quilt…you can find the pattern HERE.

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The first problem was…I used Sulky’s Water Soluble Stabilizer on the back of the Monkey Quilt to prevent puckering while hand stitching the lettering…big mistake…HUGE!!  It worked great until I was finished stitching.  I thought I would remove the stabilizer by wetting it…so…I spritzed the stabilizer with water and it turned into hard cement!!  Yikes!  I quickly dipped the edges into water…didn’t work!

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So I soaked the whole quilt top in a bath of water…twice… and carefully hung it to dry. 

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After the quilt top was dry, the fabric around the printing wrinkled up like a ninety year old woman who had spent too much time in a bikini!   Even after I ironed it, the wrinkles were still there…but oh well…it was good enough for quilting…My thinking was after it’s all stitched, with binding on, I will give it a good wash in the wash machine and hopefully all the starch will come out…and so would the wrinkles!!  One thing is for sure, I won’t be using this product again!  Or if I do, I will leave the stabilizer on until the quilt is completed before washing it out.  DO NOT SPRITZ!

The second problem arose while quilting the quilt…the machine would not stitch over the thick bulky chenille!  Remember there is also Minky on the back of the quilt so I guess the chenille plus the plush Minky was just too much bulk for the machine to handle. No problem…I looped around the chenille and will now go around the those blocks with my domestic machine.  I’m lucky that I only put a few chenille blocks in the quilt!  Sheesh!  Food for thought for next time…

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It’s a good thing this quilt is so dang cute or some colourful language would have been coming out of my sewing room!

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So into the wash with you…then I will team you up with the lamb quilt and find a nice BABY BOY gift bag…and then we WAIT…

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…exactly one month to the day…as Baby Boy Doyle’s launching date is June 13th!!  Blast off!! 

Thanks for stopping by…misery loves company don’t cha know!:o))~P

11 comments:

  1. That is adorable, such a cute design. I use the stuff from jo anns, it washes right out, but it doesn't stick, that is the problem with mine.

    Debbie

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  2. So cute though! Thanks for the heads up! Lucky baby!

    Cheery wave from
    Bev

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  3. That sounds like lots of problems, but the quilt is fantastic and so much fun.

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  4. Well, for all the problems, the monkey quilt is adorable. The wording around the border makes the quilt along with the monkey applique. Cute, cute.

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  5. OMGosh....I used Sulky’s Water Soluble Stabilizer and I had the same problem....I'm not sure I got it all out.....I will never use it again....very very cute quilts....

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  6. So unfortunate that you had such problems, but my golly you have a beautiful monkey quilt now!

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  7. Yikes what a fiasco! But well worth it in the end. It's adorable!

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  8. Thanks for the heads up on the stabilizer! Your little monkeye quilt is adorable despite the problems you had and your Benjamin quilt is just too cute!! Absolutely love it!:) What perfect little boy gifts! (Nice to see you back!:)

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  9. It turned out so cute! Sorry about all the problems but it sure was nice of you to warn the rest of us.

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  10. It is so frustrating to have these issues crop up when you have put so much work into it. What a cute quilt...thanks for the tips!

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  11. Oh my, thanks for the info. I'm glad you were able to correct the stabilizer problem. I love your Monkey and Lamb quilts, lucky grandson. I think I see a see a sock monkey in your future. <3 Enjoy your day

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