Well I'd given up, and was fine with that, but then I made the mistake of telling the birthday girl that this was her belated present and I'd be a few more weeks coming up with a replacement. She insisted though that she have it, even in its incomplete state (which is my fault because the photos I actually posted were the best shots of this disaster) but.. how can I say no to this face? I went ahead and gave it another go. I picked up where I left off on the quilting and this time I got out my walking foot even though it broke my needle-holding screw thing last time I used it. It was going well for a few minutes. I'd had the brilliant idea to only quilt every other row which I hoped might save me from the drastic shift that was occuring. I thought I was going to maybe actually pull this one out when this happened. First one little piece of the walking foot fell down on to the quilt while I was sewing and then the whole thing just sort of disintegrated.* Still I did not give up. I finished up the alternating row quilting with my regular foot, threw the quilt in the wash and then laid it out on the floor to see what was what. oh. my. god. yes, that bad. have to period.it.out. The nonquilted rows are SUPER puffy, which was probably to be expected, but one row was so bad it was hilarious. Tim looks at it and says, hey it looks good, what's the problem, then tugs at it trying to get it to lay flat. That's when he realizes it doesn't, you know, lay flat. It was sticking up like 6" tall and that was not its only problem. Seams were popping open, the stitching I'd torn out had eaten away at the already worn fabric leaving awful snagged lines, the shift had huge mountains of batting in some places and absolutely none in others. Seriously, the worst sewing job I've ever done. Ok, maybe with the exception of the jogging suit I made for my sister in the 7th grade out of stretchy knit jersey. No, this is worse.
But you know what? It's actually so bad it's good again. I've embraced its awfulness and I LOVE it now! I got out my bubble jet set and present this to you now as a learning experience. Heed My Warning!
here it is in its full glory. I folded over and sewed down the tallest puffiest row.
here's a shot of the puffy
from chaos, patterns emerge. the back actually looks kinda nice.
* ok, I got this p.o.s. on ebay and now I'm stumped where else to look for a walking foot for an older model sewing machine. anyone have any ideas? I have a Bernina 801 from the 80s. The listing on ebay for this one said it was adaptable but obviously that was not the case. I can't find anything that looks right listed on ebay or anywhere else.
