Sometimes I Amaze Myself!

Mama always says, “Stupid is as stupid does.”  Forrest Gump

Sometimes I amaze myself… at the ridiculous things I can do!  I was working on a customer quilt and she asked me to piece the lining for her….  no problem, I’ve done it a million times.

I measured the quilt top…  66” wide.  Now that I have IQ on my machine I rest the machine on the end where I have the “0” end of my measuring lines.  IQ is in the way.  I have to add 10” to the measurement I want because the closest I can get to the starting point is the 10” line.  I wanted my lining to be 10” wider than the quilt.  (I bet you are a step ahead of me here.)

I need to cut 2 pieces 76” long.  I lined it up to the 76” mark, cut it, sewed it together, put it on the machine mounted the batting and quilt top. When I pulled the batting up to baste it onto the lining I realized that my lining was 10” narrower than the batting.   HMMMMM….

Yep… I added the 10” that I needed to the measurement but FORGOT to add in the 10” start point difference on  my measuring marks!  The results?  My lining is only 1” wider than the quilt so there is no room to clamp.  SHEESH!!

Time to improvise…  I cut additional strips of fabric to sew to the sides of the lining.  Rather than taking the quilt off the machine I sewed the edges together on the longarm using the tiniest seam I could make.  It was a real pain, but it is done and IQ is now stitching away.  I have to be SUPER-CAREFUL each time I roll the quilt so the add-on seam does not get quilted into the body of the quilt.

So, add this trick to the list of things I do NOT want to do again…  the lesson was learned the hard way.  That list seems to be growing longer all the time.

The bonus for my customer… no charge for piecing her lining.  Since I made such a mess of it she gets a freebie. 

Now I think I will go RE-NUMBER my machine bed starting from the other end so this does not happen again.

Time to laugh at myself and move on.  I wonder what kind of goofy trick I can pull NEXT week?

KAT