Stitching the Design and Removing the Water Soluble Film

The last blog repeat, this time from November 20, 2011.  Wanted to follow up right away and not make you click back links to read.  Just ignore if you are not interested in re-reading a past post.

I used a shiny gold colored thread and followed the lines on the water soluble film as best I could.  I did find it made the edge of the quilt a little stiff so I wobbled every once in a while.  Of course I might have wobbled anyway as I am not an expert machine quilter but why not use that as an excuse – ha, ha!

Since the water soluble film was quite heavy it didn’t want to tear off the stitches.  I didn’t want to wet the entire film to remove it so came up with an alternate method.  I first used a regular paint brush and a cup of water and just painted the lines of stitching.  The plastic could be lifted off the un-stitched areas slick as could be.  As I was using the paint brush I remembered I bought a Yasutomo Niji Waterbrush at Paducah that I had never used with the water color pencils also unused.    (Must get them out and actually use them soon.)  I dug the brush out of my drawer of miscellaneous quilt stuff and put it to work.  It was nice not to have to dip my brush into water all the time, just had to give this waterbrush a little squeeze to get more water into the bristles.
To fill it you unscrew the top and squeeze the barrel while holding it under water.  As the brush gets dry the soft plastic barrel is squeezed to re-saturate the brush.  I just painted the stitching lines and that was enough to melt the plastic so the rest could be removed with the small hemostats I used to grab the pieces to remove them.

Of course there are tiny bits left but when I wash this quilt the rest should all dissolve and wash away.  This removal took a little time but really wasn’t too bad, especially when I did it while watching TV.  I had a little mess of tiny pieces to vacuum up around my chair when I was finished though.

After getting all the plastic film off the quilt borders I examined my stitching.  The parts that were really squiggly and wiggly I removed and re-quilted them.  I traced the original stitching lines with that same white chubby crayon that comes off when ironed to mark where the stitching would be re-stitched. 
The next step I will take when all the boo-boos are fixed is to echo quilt around my feathered designs.  I will be using black thread so it doesn’t detract from my feathers and make the feathers stand out more.  I am thinking this may take a while and right now I don’t know how many rows I will be doing until I actually start stitching it.  Don’t look for a report on that stitching as I will probably keep the rest a secret until the unveiling in May 2012.  I know, it is unfair to get teased about this quilt and not get to see it and if I knew for sure none of quilt guild members read this blog I would be more open about showing everything right now.

This has been a fun quilt to work on so far.  Have been thinking about what I want to do next but right now have no idea.  I could start working on the program I am going to give for my quilt guild in January – Tips and Tricks for Making Bags/Purses.  I have lots of ideas and things I want to show and tell about but need to get it all organized and probably should start soon.  I want to make samples, compile lists of resources for patterns, and relay other tips and tricks I have picked up when making bags.  I like doing programs as I always learn so much so volunteer to give programs on something I want to know more about.  Our guild has only about 30 members and have a variety of programs but can't afford to bring in big name quilters so have a lot of member given programs.  They cover a big variety of subjects and everyone appreciates the work put in to prepare.  The more I type about this program the more I am convinced I had better start as time will go quickly the next couple of months.

 Until Later,
Lynn