WIP down memory lane...

Woohoo!!  Like a lion tamer getting together with a dominatrix, I finally got some WIP work done. A Work In Progress is still in progress, but we're closer the finish line than we were.

I am ashamed to confess that it was a long weekend in Western Australia and I did not get one stitch sewn or one piece of fabric cut. But I managed to get to my machine Tuesday night and hit a WIP I had planned to finish for TGIFF for the first Friday of February... 2012. Getting back to my WIP was good, but I did run into a snag or two... Let me start with a story.

When he was 7, a family friend took my brother fishing. My brother was a mad keen fisherman from the age he could totter to our grandparents' goldfish pond with a net clutched in his little chubby hands. My dad wasn't into fishing at all. Like crafting, it skipped a generation. So after we moved to Australia and my grandfather was off the hook (hold your groans, you'll need to conserve them), a family friend regularly took my brother fishing. When they got back one morning, after an early start, the time honoured question was asked: "Did you catch anything?"

The answer, surprisingly, was that they had caught a 4 foot, blue eyed, blonde ugly fish... (their words, not mine. Yes, I have the memory of an elephant). If you hadn't guessed, my brother had cast and caught his own head with a double-ganger hook.

"OH MY GOD!" my mother shrieked. "MY BABY!" Ok, I may be taking a bit of poetic licence there, but she did ask "Did you rush him to the doctor?"

They looked at her blankly. "No" they said (like that was a crazy idea). "The herring were running. We cut the line and kept fishing..." Then, when the fish had stopped running, they went to the doctor to get the hook cut out of my brother's head. As you do...

I was reminded of this family anecdote tonight for two reasons.

One, this is a fishy quilt and fishy makes me think of my brother. Because he smells. (Not really but I'm on a roll and he doesn't read my blog so it's FREE SWINGS - no retribution!)

Two, something unexpected was caught.

My darning foot. I sewed it right in. Don't ask me how. It's what's technically known in the quilting world as a Free-motion F***up. Excuse my French.

Like my brother, I left it there, put a new 'hook' (foot) on, and kept sewing. I am not quite sure how to deal with this now...  Does anyone have the number for the quilt doctor?

But it was soooo good to make progress. I sewed across mountains ...

... across seas ...

... through forests ...

I felt like I'd WhIPped around the world!  I spent so long playing with the machine settings to get the darn gorgeous invisible thread and my machine playing nicely together, that the idea of stopping was quite UNBEARABLE!

(That one's for Katy - the photo and the pun).

I have a love hate relationship with invisible thread. I LOVE that you can't see it and you can't see how bad your FMQing is. Really, if you are unsure of FMQing, I thoroughly recommend raw edge applique with invisible thread. You get loads of practice in and you are essentially 'stapling' the applique down. Because it's invisible, you don't have to stress about it being jerky or uneven and you get lots of practice in. But it can be tricky to get the tension right and this particular quilt is a bugger. Invisible thread suggests a fine needle, but at times, I'm going through five or more layers of fabric, which would demand a heavier needle... Dilemma... So I ended up using a size 80 titanium quilting needle with my top tension sent to 1.25. When I got it right, I just had to keep going. I love that you can go pretty much anywhere and it doesn't matter. So I meandered through trees, water and mountains, as fancy took me. Here's part of the back.

It is going to take me forever, but it's going to be worth it!

 The pattern is Calling Me Home by McKenna Ryan. And it was calling me tonight!


(I have to say, working on a quilt this size, I could KISS Alex Veronelli for creating the jumbo size spools of Aurifil invisible thread. They are AMAZING - I adore the 'smoke' as well as the clear colours. Can't wait to finish the quilt and get decent daytime photos!!)