Monday, September 13, 2010

Bound and determined. . .

. . .or, they are bound because I was determined.

Remember the nine quilts I had accumulated that needed binding? I'm on the last one! The black and white quilt I am making for my nephew only needs binding on two sides and I will be completely done. It's a miracle.

It also contained a bit of a surprise. I bind quilts working at my desk. I roll up the quilt with the edge in process sticking out and drape it across the desktop. As I was shifting the black and white quilt, I was stuck by something protruding from the rolled up portion. What? I started feeling and prodding and found the end of a pin protruding from the roll. So I started exploring further, unrolling the quilt. About two feet from one side and three feet from the other the end of a very large pin was sticking through the front of the quilt. I could feel a large glass head on the pin through the backing, and it appeared to be inside the quilt, between the front and back. Oh, good grief. I quickly determined that the head was too large to work out of the fabric and I would have to snip a slit in the backing to remove it. With much irritation I made a small slit and worked the pin out. It was entangled in the batting so I had to slit that too. And here it is:

It's absolutely huge, at least three inches long, and looks more like a hatpin instead of a sewing pin. How in heaven's name it became trapped inside my quilt is a mystery. The problem is, now I have a slit about 1/2" long on the backing of the quilt, which has me very, very aggravated. It's at such odd spacing from the edges it would look strange to put the label over it, but I may have to. Or make a block and add it as decoration. I haven't decided yet.

It's always something.

9 comments:

The Calico Cat said...

Oh damn - I haven't taken a stitch...

Decca said...

So industrious! And what a sense of accomplishment you must feel.

The Calico Quilter said...

Decca, I mostly feel tired.....

Deborah Levy said...

oops! Looks like the quilter lost one of her pins....

momtofatdogs said...

I can GUESS how it got there! I use those same corsage pins to pin the backing & the quilt top to the leaders on the rollers. If you drop any on the floor, the backing will pick them up off the floor & could POSSIBLY get quilted in between the batting & backing. The machine likely never hit it, the needle would probably go right over it anyway & unless it hit the pin head EXACTLY on top - that baby is IN there! Read once on Bonnie's blog that SHE quilted a bobbin in one of her quilts! A "Class M" bobbin is pretty big. Roughly the size of a quarter & the depth of 5/8" ? Maybe? Maybe less....Pretty big sucker though.

Sam

Tanya said...

Or applique a heart over it and call it extra love! I've done that even on the top of a quilt.

Elaine Adair said...

Solution to the slit ... cut some small pieces of double sided fusible interfacing, slide it wherever you made the slit, iron it, etc., and you are good to go. You may have to do it in 2 steps, but I've done this before and it holds good. Do some quilting through that area and the quilting holds it even better.

Elaine Adair said...

I shsould have also contratulated you on the PILE of quilts! That IS a LOT of work!!!

Linda said...

Way to go...I have 5 that need to be bound, are you ready for more???? Good job. I'm sorry about the big pin. I think Elaine's idea is great or even Tanya's. I sure wouldn't stress over it but it sure is aggravating. I know you feel great about finishing all of these.