It's in the blood...?

With Hallowe'en coming - I thought I might add a little gore to the blog!  Muuah-ha-ha-ha!

This week I sold a queen sized quilt I had on the site - but the client wanted it increased to king size.  Nooooo problemo.....  Well it took a little blood, sweat and tears I must say.  But in this case it is reversed.  Tears, sweat and blood.  ​

Tears:  I had to remove all the binding on three sides.  For those of you who like to bind quilts - this may seem like a simple thing.  However - this is the part I like least of quilting.  So as I pulled out all the stitiching - I cried over the effort I had already put into cutting, pressing, folding, sewing, pressing and topstitching it on.

Sweat: Then I had to create a six inch "addition" that would match the quilt in the same fabrics. Luckily I had some of the same fabrics left from the original quilt project.  I decided to add piano keys on 2 sides - but despite the "fast way" of doing things, the piecing and pressing of 92 - 2.5 inch strips, 6 inches long - in a long line took a lot longer than I thought it would!  Then came sewing it on the raw edge, adding batting and batting - sandwich style.  And then I had to reload the quilt on the frame to quilt it properly.  Because it needed to look as if it had always been planned that way - and quilted to match.

Next, came the re-attaching and the re-sewing of the binding.  That's when I saw it. ​ Noooo.....!! 

Yeah.  Well... I was feeling so confident about the out come of the alteration - until I saw it.  (insert eye roll, expletives and stomping of feet here)   Every 6-8 inches, here and there, I saw little brown marks.  And some red ones.  Then a big red blotch.  NOOOOOOO!

Blood.  Spots  Streaks. Blobs.  From the hundreds of pins I added and pulled out while quilting or attaching pieces.  I looked at my hands and - no, I wasn't bleeding.  But apparently I had at some point.  You know its kind of funny.  I swear - ask me to test my blood sugar with a pin prick and you cannot MAKE me bleed.  But I see a quilt and my blood starts a pumping!  I don't notice that I prick my fingers, or hands, or crunch my knuckles.  I don't even notice stubbed toes - but I see a quilt and I bleed.  Without pin pricks.  Or so it seems.  I get so pre-occupied with what I love to do - pain and blood are not apparent.

One example in point, a month ago, I was quilting and heard a bang and looked and saw the needle was broken.  "Well darn it.  How did I do that?"  I began looking for the needle on the quilt to remove it before I changed the needle - but couldn't see it.  Well you guessed it.  Yeah. I found it.  In my finger.  No pain.  But you shoud have seen me jump to remove my hand so I would not bleed on the quilt.  (I hadn't) 

But what if I had?  Would the quilt be ruined?  All that work - and one small accident could ruin hours and hour of work!

No. 

A vampire once told me to ward off vampires, use garlic.  But to remove blood stains - use hydrogen peroxide. Apply with a Q-tip.  Blot and it will dissappear. Like magic.  Oh yeah baby!   

And so... I did.  So there was just sweat and tears in this quilt!  Removing the blood was actually very easy!

My mom has often told me that any kind of creative needlework is "in my blood" - only that it skipped a generation.  According to her she cannot sew to save her life!  Little does she know the learning curve I have had.  Oh the pain - and blood it it took to get here!  (Pass the hydrogen peroxide!)